The party began with all the guests sitting down to a fancy dinner. There was plenty of small talk and long conversation, plenty laughs here and there. The children were all on their best behavior and had excellent table manners. All in all, the dining part of the evening went well. When dinner was finished they moved from the dinning hall and to the other room for the main event. All but one was inside that room and that one person was beautiful lady wearing an elegant blue dress that had come with a matching cape she had earlier left hanging with the coats and hats of the other guests.

"It will be starting soon." Lyon said to the lady. "Will you not come inside and join us my dear?"

"No. Not yet, I must wait first."

"Juvia it is a downright sin for any man to keep a woman of your beauty and compassion waiting."

"Perhaps but I'll forgive all his sins. Thank you so very much for escorting us here." She planted a kiss of gratitude on his cheek. "I often wonder what we would do if you weren't our friend."

"You're welcome. I consider it honor that I have your friendship and his. But he better not make me regret letting him have you."

Juvia giggled softly and watched him go back inside. Then she continued to wait and wait until at last her patience was rewarded with a fine gentleman coming to greet her. As expected his hair was combed properly and he wore a suit even though he found such clothing to be very restricting. His hand was in the pocket of his trousers and his fingers appeared to be fiddling with something inside.

"Hello boy." She smiled and ran her gloved fingers over the pendent of the necklace she wore.

"Hello Juvia lady." The gentleman smiled back. "I know it was improper of me to be this late but I had to get something for tonight."

"And what was that?"

He took his hand out of his pocket and held out what it was he had been fiddling with. It was a thimble.

"My kiss." He answered with a playful grin.

When that lost boy flew away from the nursery window back when Juvia was twelve, she spent an entire year waiting for him. She still attended school and spent her days with family and friends but her nights were spent waiting by the open window of the nursery, waiting for the boy to return as he said he would. But he seemed to have forgotten about her, for that whole year he did not come to her window once. At the year's end her father insisted that she stop waiting and close the window, certain that the boy would never return. She tearfully pleaded with Jellal not to shut the window for she had promised that such a thing would never happen. But the man was firm in his decision and could not be persuaded to change it. But this was not an act of cruelty, he made this decision because he could not bear to see his daughter suffer with false hope. However he conceded to leave the window open for just one more night.

Juvia stayed awake for as long as she could but all the crying she had done that night made her so exhausted that she did not last long. Her mother found her sleeping by the window and with her husband's help, she tucked her into her own bed. Natsu and Romeo were not in the nursery that night, they were away visiting with Mirajane and Panther Lily had broken his leg after slipping on the winter ice outside so he was not in the nursery either. He was resting in the drawing room on cushion, staying there until his leg had finished healing.

Erza still having not yet recovered from losing her children for such a long period, had no intention of leaving any of them alone in the nursery without a nurse. She had her daughter home again and she meant to keep her until she reached adulthood. She sat in her chair, very close to the fire, so as to see to read, for there was no other light in the nursery. As she felt herself become sleepy from the fire's warmth, she heard the sound of wind blowing through the window and something landing on the floor quietly. At first she thought she had dreamed it but she found the sounds to be real when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She looked to see that the hand belonged to a boy. A boy who Erza had never seen but still recognized. When he saw the grown woman he backed away from her in horror as if his worst fear had finally come to pass.

"Oh Juvia." He said getting ready to cry. "You shouldn't have."

Gray had no sense of time due to where he lived and he had been gone awfully long. When he chose to come back he feared that he had been gone too long and would find Juvia now a woman. Due to the darkness he could not see Erza's face well enough to know who she was and mistook her for a grown up Juvia. The tall, beautiful lady turned on the light, allowing him to recognize her better.

"You are not Juvia." He said with relief. "You are her mother."

"I am." She said. "I have never seen you but I know who you are. You're the boy that she's been waiting for. Gray is your name, yes?"

"Yes." He said bowing respectfully for her. "Has Juvia grown up?"

"She is still young, only a year older than she was the last time you saw her."

"Where is she?"

"She's asleep in the bed."

He took a step towards the sleeping girl and moved his arm to wake her but her mother's hand gently stopped him.

"Please do not wake her." She pleaded. "Do not let her know you came back. She has waited for too long and tomorrow night the window will be closed. She fell apart when we told her this evening and if she knows that you did come back, heaven only knows how miserable she'll be."

"You can't shut the window."

"We must. Forgive me for saying this but it is the truth, waiting for you has tortured her so. I know you'd never do anything to intentionally hurt her but if you just come back into her life like this you will cause her great pain."

"I don't understand."

"I know your story Gray. You've chosen to not grow up but Juvia has. She will get older, you will not. One day she will want her own family. A husband and children. A real husband and real children. Not pretend and...And she just can't have any of that with you."

"She never mentioned wanting any of that before."

"That is because she is still young and does not yet want them but she will in time. Gray I do not tell you this to be cruel, I tell you this because I could not bear for Juvia's heart to be broken when she finds that she can't keep you."

"What if I came back more often?"

"That would only make it worse. Give her hope for something that will never happen."

"I can't have her, can I?"

"No. I'm sorry but you cannot." She said stroking the hair of the tragic boy in a way that she had always stroked the hair of her own children. "You cannot have her and just keep leaving. It is not fair to her."

He looked back at the the little girl who was both loved by the woman and the boy, albeit each had a different kind of love for her. He truly regretted staying away for so long but he did it because he had to know something. He had to know if he could be happy again with the life he preferred to live, after meeting her. But he found that he could not. He could never find joy in anything that had made him happy before, not if she wasn't there with him.

"What if I didn't leave?" He wondered out loud. "Could I have her then?"

In one hand he held the thimble she had given him and continued toward the bed.

"What are you doing?" Erza asked him.

"I wanted to return her thimble."

She expected him to just leave the thimble on the nightstand and leave quietly out the window. Not waking her daughter, giving her a better chance at healing with false knowledge that he had forgotten her but he did none of those things. He instead, leaned over the bed slowly and pressed his lips to Juvia's, giving her what he thought to be a thimble but really it was a kiss. Gajeel had been right when he said that a kiss was a powerful thing because it was a kiss that would forever bound Gray to Juvia. She woke when his lips left hers and at first she too thought she was dreaming but when she came to the realization that she was awake and that he was really here, her happiness could not be described.

"Hello boy." She said with a calm but somehow overjoyed smile.

"Hello Juvia lady." He said back to her with a playful and mischievous smile.

No words needed to be said for Erza to realize what choice the boy had made. She closed the window and wrapped him up in blankets to keep him warm for the night. Within a three weeks she had arranged for him to be adopted by a very loving couple in which the wife, Ur as she was called happened to be the great grand niece of Gray's mother. She and her family had spent many years wondering what became of the baby boy who disappeared after his parents were murdered. They were good to him. Very good to him.

He attended school and eventually college where he met and befriended Lyon. Good friends they were but also constant rivals for the lovely Juvia. One time when Lyon flirted with her in the garden, Gray became so jealous that he pounced on him and they tackled each other into the pond. Disgraceful to many but amusing to her. High society expected her to choose Lyon but her family knew who her choice would always be and no other girl held Gray's favor the way she did. On her wedding day she was in white with a pink satin sash and wore laces in her hair. Gray feared that Lyon would cave into jealousy as Precht did with his parents and do something mad such as alight in the church and forbid their vows. But there were no hard feelings on Lyon's part. He bitter sweetly accepted the marriage.

By then Mr. Fernandes had chosen to retire with his wife and as a wedding gift to the newly weds, they gave them the house. It wasn't too long before once again the nursery was filled with children. Her children. Her's and Gray's. She had birthed him a son and later a daughter. Their older son took mostly after his father when he was in his youth but he had inherited his mother's humility and willingness to understand. Their younger daughter was nearly just as her mother was when she was young but she was also extremely passionate and eager like her father. When Gray held each of them for their first time, when they were just newborn babies he swore that he would once again let loose a force of laughter and happiness. He had never known such joy.

Juvia told her children many stories but before the other night she had not told them of the adventure she had on Tendrou Island. At least not the whole true story. She wrote down her adventure in a book although she did change some parts of it to fit with society's values. Society did not believe it was proper for children to experience things like kissing and first love. She changed the names of the characters and made the ending a bittersweet one because she did not want millions of people coming to her and her family with questions about if the story was true or how such events were possible if they were true. The book was a success and she had become a great novelist.

Gray decided to become a playwright. The people mocked him for his dream as they did to Natsu for his and granted his first two plays were good but not great. Then he got the idea to write a play based off of his wife's novel. That was the big project he was working on so much and money was an issue on this but Lyon happily loaned it to him. When all was finished, a party was held to serve a fancy dinner and then treat the guests to the first production of his play. He had invited Natsu, Lucy, Romeo, the lost boys, and their families to attend and to have a very happy reunion between them all.

"Must you always keep me waiting?" Juvia said to her husband.

"At least I still come back." He said with a nervous smile. "It may take a long time but I always come back to you."

"I know. That's why I still wait for you."

"Is Winter still mad at me?"

"No. He told me that he's sorry and that he's forgiven you."

"I'm glad."

"As am I."

"I am going to make it up to him."

"I know you are." She took hold of his hand and kissed that special spot on his mouth. "We better hurry, I promised Sylvia that you would let her sit on your knee during the show."

The play was well received and adored by the entire audience. A great deal of money came from her book and his play, with that money the couple planned to buy the orphanage where Gray had been left and remake it into a more suitable home for lost children until they were adopted.

When the show ended Winter and Sylvia had fallen asleep and had to be carried to bed by their parents.

"Mother." Sylvia moaned sleepily with her head was resting on the woman's shoulder.

"Yes?" She said.

"I hear bells."

"Bells? Dear you're probably dreaming." Juvia hushed before kissing her head.

"No. I hear them too." Winter said fighting to stay awake as his father carried him on his back. "Is someone at the door?"

The couple checked but they saw no one at the door. However from the open window they did see a pink light in the distance of the night that twinkled or rather smiled at them. Gray knew that light was Meredy and he knew how sad she was to see him go but she decided to cope with the loss by secretly watching over his children as she had watched over him.

"No Winter." Gray said lovingly to his son. "No one is at the door. But there might be a fairy at the window tonight."

"Are fairies real Father?"

"They're real as long as you believe that they are." He said before winking at the light and helping his wife tuck in their children.

So Juvia had spoken the truth when she said that time at the window when she was twelve, was the last time she saw the boy who would not grow up. The boy she saw a year later was ready to grow up. Gray had left behind one adventure for another and he would never regret it even if it meant he had to give up an eternal childhood. But the spirit of the lost boy he once was still lived on. For the wishful girl who found him would tell his story to their children and they will tell it to their children, and so it will go on.

For all children grow up.