At the local tavern Natsu and his crew were having a good time, rewarding themselves for their hard work with a few drinks of rum and booze. Unfortunately their celebration only lasted for about ten minutes because as soon as Erza got drunk the fun was over for everyone except her.
"Bring me more booze!" The intoxicated red head demanded as she sat on top of a hog tied Gajeel and Natsu.
"Get off of me you pyscho!" Gajeel cried.
"Erza stop this! That's an order!" Natsu shouted.
"Silence worms!" She commanded. "Laxus where's that bottle of booze?!"
"Coming." He gulped before giving her the bottle.
"Is she always like this when she's drunk?" Lucy asked him.
"Yes. Eventually she'll wear herself out and lose consciousness, although we don't know how long it will be before that happens."
After finishing that fifth bottle of booze, Erza was standing on the tables dancing and shaking her bottom. All the drunk male customers at the tavern had absolutely no complaints about her actions. They all oogled her while making cat calls.
"Yeah shake it baby!" The men cheered while whistling.
"Oh no, not this again." Natsu groaned. "Laxus! Don't just stand there, untie us before Erza does something really stupid."
Once Laxus cut Natsu and Gajeel loose all three of them grabbed Erza and forcibly dragged her out of the tavern. In the nick of time too, a moment later and she would have started stripping.
"Yo ho! Yo ho! A pirate's life for me!" She sang before going into a laughing fit.
"Remind me why Gray was the one we left behind and not her?" Gajeel asked.
"Yeah smooth move captain." Laxus said.
"Alright from now on when we go out drinking, we ditch her." Natsu said carrying Erza over his shoulder. "Let's just be glad we got her out of there before she did something that she would really regret."
"Like what?" Laxus asked.
"Like letting on of those drunkards take advantage of her."
"Why not let them do it? That'll teach her not to go so heavy on the alcohol."
"Hell will freeze over before I let some intoxicated, perverted, sleeze bucket lays his dirty mits on her! Now shut up and keep walking before I make you carry her!"
By the time they made it back to the ship Erza was out cold.
"Oh my goodness! What happened?" Juvia gasped when she saw the unconscious she pirate.
"Nothing to be worried about Angelfish." Gajeel said. "Erza just had too much booze... Again."
"I told you this would happen." Gray said.
"Just help me get her into bed." Natsu said.
He and Gray took her below deck and laid her in bed.
"Can I trust you girls to make sure that she doesn't wake up and go skinny dipping?" Natsu asked Lucy.
"Sure."
"Thanks."
Natsu and Gray left the room. Juvia looked over the passed out Erza.
"Is she alright?" Juvia asked.
"She's just drunk." Lucy said.
"What's drunk?"
"It's when someone drinks too much alcohol, do you know what alcohol is?"
"I've heard merchants on their ships talk about selling alcohol to men called doctors. Apparently they use it for the sick and injured but I've never heard of anyone drinking it for enjoyment."
"You really need to get on land more."
"Are you sure Erza is going to be alright, her face is so red. Was she embarrassed by someone?"
"No. Red face is just a side effect from being drunk."
"Huh...I wonder if Gray turned red because he was embarrassed or if it was because he was drunk."
"When did he turn red?"
"Earlier this evening when I took him swimming and gave him the ability to breathe under water."
"You can do that?"
"Sure although it's temporary."
"How do you do it?"
"It's very simple, all I have to do is kiss a land breather on the mouth."
"You kissed him?"
"Yes."
"Oh...I think he was embarrassed when you kissed him."
"Really? Why? I had to kiss him, he couldn't swim and if I had just let him gone under he would have drowned."
"Do you not know the significance of a kiss?"
"Of course I do. It's to lend help to land creatures who win our favor."
"Well that's what it is to you merfolk but it has a different meaning to us humans. It has a very special significance."
"What do you mean?"
"When a human kisses someone it's because we...We want to show that person we love them."
"You mean to humans kisses mean love?"
"Yes."
"Oh...Is Gray embarrassed by love?"
"I guess."
"So he doesn't like love? He doesn't want to love or be loved?"
"I don't know. I haven't been with him long enough to know if he does."
Juvia felt greatly disappointed by these news. If Gray was embarrassed by love, if he didn't want to love or be loved then he could never love her.
"What's the matter?" Lucy asked noticing her melancholic expression.
"Nothing I was...I was just thinking about my sisters and how much I miss them." She lied.
The word sisters reminded Lucy of the news she had learned about her mother and the connection she shared with Juvia.
"Listen I found out something interesting about you."
"What's that?"
"Well you say that you don't know why you were born differently than other merfolk right?"
"Yes."
"While I was getting the capricorn horn I learned why you're so different."
"Why?"
"Because you weren't born the same way your sisters were. You came from the water of the moon pool but you didn't come from a siren's blood."
"What do you mean?"
"Years ago, my mother found the moon pool where merfolk come from. She was attacked and some her blood landed in the water, you were born from that blood."
"That's not... Possible. How could I have come from a human? The water will only accept siren blood at least that's what I was always told."
"Apparently it will accept human blood too."
"I...I don't understand. I...I always knew I was different from them but I never suspected that I was that different. And if what you're saying is true than why...Why didn't my sisters tell me? For that matter why didn't they kill me or abandon me? They hate humans and anything that comes from them and yet they still accepted me."
"Maybe your sisters loved you so much that they looked passed that."
"But they don't believe in love. They can't feel it."
"They may think they don't but if they truly hate humans and anything that is a part of them like you say yet they still cared for you a mermaid who came from human blood then they can feel love. Because only love is strong enough to make someone get past their hatred for someone else."
This brought Juvia a new perspective on her sisters. It was a known fact that merfolk had to look after their kind weather they liked them or not. As long as they were a descendants of the sirens who had given them life they had to look after each other. Juvia had always grown up believing that her sisters were annoyed by her, that they only looked after her because of the obligation that all merfolk who descend from the sirens must look after each other, but she didn't descend from the sirens so there was no obligation and yet her sisters raised her in their pod which meant they did it out of love. A tear fell from her eye.
"Are you alright?" Lucy asked.
"Yes." Juvia smiled. "I just now realized that I...I miss my sisters now more than ever."
Lucy gently hugged Juvia to comfort her.
