Juvia sat at the bar disconsolately. Her friend Cana had dragged her out to the bar Fairy Tail, and then left her for some dark haired guy who wanted to have a drinking contest with her. Juvia would have left already, except that she wanted to make sure Cana made it home okay.

She stirred her drink and looked around, not sure of what to do now. With her friend gone and her phone dead, the only option left to her was people watching. At a table near the doors there were two older men sitting and chatting. A few tables over from them, a blond girl was arguing with a pink haired guy. The girl looked vaguely familiar to Juvia.

Maybe Cana introduced us once or twice, she thought.

A few seats away from her at the bar, a dark haired guy nursed a drink, a scowl on his face. She looked around for Cana again, but her brunette friend was nowhere to be found.

She suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see a silver haired boy standing behind her with a small smile.

"Hello," he said. "Can I buy you a drink?"

Juvia flushed. "Um, Juvia doesn't drink," she said shyly.

The boy grinned at her. "Juvia, huh? Came to the bar and don't want to drink?" he said. "That's just not right. Let me buy you just one, okay? You're too beautiful to be alone at the bar on a Friday night. And then maybe later we can go somewhere more private, if you catch my drift." He winked at her flirtatiously.

Juvia was definitely feeling uncomfortable with his insinuations, and she really hated drinking alcohol. She looked around desperately for some sort of out and her eyes landed on the guy with dark hair as he was coming back from the bathroom. An idea came to her mind.

"Um, actually, Juvia came here with her boyfriend," she said nervously. "And here he is coming back right now!" She jumped out of her seat and dashed to the guy. "Hey, honey!" she said, grabbing his arm. "Juvia is so glad you're back now!"

He looked at her confused. "Wha-"

"Please help Juvia," she whispered to him, leaning close to put her face next to his ear. "This man is bothering her and she needed an out."

He looked at Juvia in understanding, then his expression changed to one of determination. "Hey, Juves," he said in a forced upbeat tone. "Who's your friend?"

Juvia turned around to look at the man who was trying to get her into bed with him, who had an abashed smile on his face.

"I'm Lyon," he said. "I was just-"

"Just leaving my girlfriend alone," the dark haired boy blustered.

Lyon caught Juvia's eye, winked again, and promptly fled in the other direction. Probably looking for somebody else to take home, Juvia thought.

The dark haired boy gently extricated his arm from her grasp. Juvia blushed- she had not realized she was still holding on to him. She turned around to go sit back in her seat after saying a quick thank you to the guy who helped her. To her surprise, however, he grabbed his drink from the bar and joined her.

"Hey," he said. "So what exactly happened, Juvia?"

Juvia blushed again, at how casually he said her name, as if he had known it his whole life. "Um," she said. "That guy was hitting on Juvia, trying to buy her drinks and take her home. Juvia doesn't drink, and she definitely didn't want to go home with him. So she found you walking back to the bar and pretended you were her boyfriend. So, thank you for playing along. Juvia really appreciates it."

The guy didn't say anything about her speech habits, which she appreciated, and then he extended his hand for her to shake. "I'm Gray," he said.

"And Juvia is Juvia," she smiled.

"So why are you at the bar then," he asked. "If you don't mind my asking."

"Juvia came with one of her friends, Gray-sama," she replied. "She didn't want to go out alone, but when we got here, she ended up ditching Juvia at the bar." Juvia grimaced.

Gray did too, after a slight start of surprise when she called him -sama. "Well, why haven't you gone home then," he asked, genuinely curious. He was finding himself enthralled with this beautiful girl who spoke in third person.

"Juvia wants to make sure Cana-san gets home safely, first," Juvia said. "So she will sit here and wait for her friend to come back." Juvia buckled down in her seat, a look of determination on her pale face.

Gray chuckled at her. "Well, you are a very good friend, then, Juves," he said, not even realizing he had given her a nickname.

Juvia did, however, and her face flamed. Just who was this handsome stranger? she thought to herself.

"Th-thank you," she said with a small smile.

He leaned in toward her. "Well, I need to get going, now, but if you ever want to get together sometime, here's my phone number." He slid a piece of paper with his number written on it toward her.

Juvia felt as if she'd never blushed this much in her whole entire life. "Okay," she said nervously. "Maybe Juvia will take you up on that." With more confidence, she gave him a wink and a grin.

Gray blushed, much to her surprise. He turned his head to the side and mumbled, "Well, I will see you around then. Bye, Juves."

He turned and walked out of the bar. Juvia was still staring after him when Cana came back.

"So, you ready to go, Juvi?" she asked her with a scowl.

Juvia turned to look at her glowering friend. "You lost, I take it?" she asked.

Cana grimaced. "I don't wanna talk about it." Then, looking more closely at Juvia's flushed face, "What happened here? You look embarrassed."

Juvia smiled softly. "I think I got myself a date."