From the moment on Juvia's schedule changed. She would go to school, then work, and before going home she would visit Dudley and help Mr. Neekis feed him. However neither one of them could figure out what was wrong with him.

"Is his fin hurting him?" Juvia asked her boss.

"No. According to the vet his fin should be completely healed." He told her. "I just don't understand why he isn't eating that much."

"Could he be sick?"

"Maybe."

"If you want Mr. Neekis, I could go to the library and read up on the dolphins. I might find an explanation on what's wrong with him."

"Good idea."

Juvia went to the marine park library and checked out three books on dolphins. She hoped that at least one of them could help her figure out what's wrong with Dudley. On her way out of the library she ran into Jellal who had checked out a huge load of books.

"My goodness, you sure are doing a lot of research Jellal." Juvia observed. "Do you need any help carrying those?"

"No I got it." He assured her. "By the way thank you for giving me access here."

"You're welcome. Saved any creatures yet?"

"What? Oh yeah right um...No not yet. So if you don't mind me asking what are you researching?"

"Dolphins and their behaviors. That new dolphin they rescued isn't eating very well and they don't know what's wrong with him. I'm hoping I can find out what's bothering him."

"Well I don't know that much about dolphins but from what I hear they're supposed to be very smart."

"A lot of sea creatures are smarter than what people give them credit for."

"The thing that saved me must've been really smart." Jellal muttered to himself without thinking.

"What?"Juvia said getting upset.

"Oops!" He said realizing his mistake.

"Jellal! The only reason I gave you access to the library was because I thought you wanted to save endangered sea animals, not hunt for some creature that doesn't even exist."

"It does exist." He defended. "I saw it...Well part of it. But I know it's out there."

"How could you lie to me like that? You are so devious."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

She glared at him.

"Give me a break, I've had a rough week. You know my old man is starting to think I'm crazy."

"Can you blame him?"

"I'm not crazy! Devious and dishonest but not crazy."

"Truthfully I would have preferred you to be crazy instead those two things."

"Look I don't want any trouble, I just want to make things cool with my dad okay? He and my mom are always on my case. Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"No I don't. My parents are gone remember?"

"Oh..." Jellal immediately realized the error of his words and felt remorse. As much as he picked on Juvia, even he felt sorry that she had grown up an orphan. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"It's okay." She started to walk away, feeling upset and thinking that he was only faking regret but he stopped her.

"Hey I really am sorry." He told her sincerely. "My mom says sometimes I forget to be considerate of other people and I guess she's right. I know I'm a jerk but I don't want hurt anybody. Really I don't."

"Then why do you do it? I don't understand you Jellal."

"It's complicated."

"It doesn't have to be you know." Just then she saw Gray pull up to take her home. "I gotta go, see you around Jellal."

She left the library and met with Gray at his car. Technically it wasn't his car it was Ur's but Gray drove around in it to pick up Juvia, Romeo, and Chelia from places like school or work.

"So I guess you'll have to fumigate now after speaking with Jellal." Gray joked.

"He's not so bad." Juvia said.

"What are you talking about? He's a total creep."

"Sometimes."

"Sometimes? Try all the time."

"Okay but you know I think if we were get to know him better we'd see that he's actually a nice guy."

"Since when are you interested in Jellal?"

"Well he doesn't have any friends. Real friends that is."

"And it's his own fault for being such a jerk."

"I'm just saying, maybe if he had just one real friend he wouldn't be so mean."

"What and you want to be that one real friend?"

"Maybe I do."

"What? But he's rude and arrogant and stupid."

"He's not stupid Gray. You really need to stop holding such a grudge toward him."

"I am not holding a grudge I'm just being realistic. Even if you did be his friend it wouldn't change a thing."

"You don't know that for sure. Maybe underneath all that arrogance there's loneliness. I think he could be a real nice guy if he wanted to be."

Gray wondered why Juvia was suddenly so sympathetic toward Jellal. True she was known to extend sympathy and kindness to anyone regardless of who they were but what did Jellal do to gain her sympathy? Just then a thought that he found to be very scary creeped into his mind. Could Jellal be this boyfriend Juvia had been seeing?

"Um Juvia." He said when they arrived home.

"Yes." She replied.

"You know you can tell me anything right?"

"Of course."

"So if you had a boyfriend you would tell me right?"

"Boyfriend? Where's this coming from?"

"I'm just speaking hypothetically. So would you?"

"I guess. I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I don't know. I mean I guess I would tell you. Can we talk about this later? I have homework to do."

"Yeah sure."

With that discussion over, Juvia went upstairs to her room to do her homework. However Gray still felt a little uneasy by this and he wanted to make sure that his fear of her dating Jellal had not come to pass. So the next time Juvia left to see "her mysterious boyfriend" Gray called up Lucy and Erza hoping that they could help him figure out what's going on.

"Hold on you think that Juvia and Jellal are secretly dating?" Lucy said when Gray told them his thoughts on the subject.

"I don't think so for sure but the horrible thought of it has crossed my mind." Gray said.

"That's ridiculous." Erza said. "Juvia considers Jellal to be a nuisance. Why would she date him?"

"Well she talked about being his friend." Gray said. "And she said that he wasn't all that bad."

"That's just her being kind. She doesn't like him."

"Still there's no way of knowing for sure unless we see it for ourselves." Gray said. "In secret that is."

"You mean spy on her?" Lucy said. "That's wrong."

"You didn't have a problem when we spied on you." Erza said.

"That's different. I asked you to and Gray why do you care if those two are dating or not?"

"Isn't it obvious? He's jealous."

"I am not jealous!" Gray denied. "I just don't think that Juvia should be dating some snotty, stuck up, rich boy who doesn't really care about her feelings."

"And you're jealous."

"I am not!"

"Gray, Juvia would hate it if we spied on her like this." Lucy said.

"Not if we don't tell her." Erza said.

"Erza you can't be serious."

"I'm not too keen on it either but we both know psycho here isn't going to drop this until he gets confirmation that they're not together so let's just humor him."

"Fine." Lucy sighed. "But I don't like it. So where is Juvia anyway?"

"According to Ur she's at the Marine Park." Gray said.

"Then that won't work for us." Erza said. "We might get wet while trying to stay out of sight so we'll need someone else to do the spying for us."

"Who?" Lucy asked.

"An expert."

"What expert?" Gray asked.

The expert Erza was speaking of was Chelia. She was a gifted sneak which was often considered annoying to them but for once it would prove useful .

"All we need is for you to watch Juvia at the park and get some pictures." Erza told Chelia.

"Why?"

"So Gray will know for sure that Juvia doesn't have a boyfriend and calm down."

"Oh no she definitely has a boyfriend. I heard her on the phone talking to him. She said that she couldn't wait to see him and that she enjoyed all the time she spent with him."

"What?!" Gray said nervously gripping his glass of juice.

"Uh-huh and last night I heard her say that she thought giving him some kisses would make him feel better."

At that moment his intense grip broke the cup to pieces, spilling the juice which luckily didn't touch Erza or Lucy.

"Gray!" Erza cried.

"I'm sorry." He said. "But I...I think I need to sit down for a minute."

He went into the living room and sat in the chair.

"Well that was a bit of an overreaction." Chelia said.

"Chelia what were you doing listening in on Juvia's phone calls?" Lucy asked suspiciously.

"Uh..." Chelia blushed upon realizing her mistake. "I'm curious about her social life."

"More like nosy about it."

"I'm sorry but who's asking me to spy on her and take pictures again?"

"Touche. But we're not doing it to be nosy, well Erza and I aren't. We just want Gray to ease up. I mean you've seen him, he's going nuts."

"Good point. I'll get you pictures." Chelia stuck the camera in her bag and went outside to go to the marine park.