Eventually they reached Clover Street and during the walk to Gray's house, Juvia noticed that no other houses on the street seemed to be occupied. They appeared to either be abandoned or have a 'For Sale' or 'For Rent' sign out in the front.

"Does anyone else live on Clover Street?" Juvia asked.

"Nope." Erza sighed. "Once the neighbors found out a family of wolves had moved in, they just turned tail and ran. Literally."

"Goodness. I know some prey are cautious about certain predators but isn't that a bit of an overreaction?"

"Oh sweetie." Erza chuckled. "While I'm relieved that you don't follow society's views, you don't really know a lot about them, do you?"

"I don't suppose I do. Care to educate me?"

"Well the thing is, even though we have evolved and become civilized, there are somethings society just can't get over. One of which being they can't get over seeing the worst in certain animals."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that a select group of creatures will forever be seen as something to be feared. That group would include; Snakes, owls, bats, crocodiles, alligators, tigers, vultures, black cats, foxes such as yours truly, and at the top of the list, wolves. I blame all those Aesop's Fables."

"I guess that means Gray doesn't have many friends."

"He doesn't have any friends at all. Just me though I'm not sure if that counts considering I'm family."

"He must be awfully lonely."

"You know for someone he used to tormented, you sure do have a lot of sympathy for him. That's admirable but I wouldn't blame you if you were just a little pissed at him for all that."

"Well if you think about it, I don't have any reason to be angry with him anymore. He apologized, he doesn't harass me now, and we were children back then. Children do a lot of nasty things, but mostly it's due to not knowing any better and usually they grow out of it. But I guess the real reason I forgive him so easily is because I felt that he was worse off than I was."

"How do you mean?"

"Well he grew up without a father who clearly adored, he was ostracized for what he is, bullied because of something somebody else did, that would make any child angry and want to lash out. Of course I'm not saying it was right off him to do so but it is understandable."

"Huh..." Erza said impressed. "You're pretty worldly for a sheep. No offense."

"None taken. I know that sheep are supposed to be innocent and naive, and maybe I am on some aspects but I know a lot more about the world's cruelty than most people would suspect."

"Because you've been bullied right?"

"No. I learned about it long before I even met Gray." She said, recalling how she first met Gajeel.

"Can I ask you something?" Erza requested.

"Sure."

"Just between us, do you believe that his dad actually did it? That he really did eat the mayor's wife?"

"I don't know. When I was younger I did because my parents did and so did my neighbors and everyone else in my life but then I read something about him and I started to wonder."

"What?"

"It was in one of those criminal biography books, apparently there was a time when his wife was in danger of going rabid and because they were so poor, he had to do the most degrading jobs in order to save up enough money to buy the drug that would cure her before it was too late."

"Yeah I remember hearing about that. Uncle Silver did the worst jobs available. He shoveled fertilizer, scrubbed toilets, worked in a sewer, he even bathed and changed the diapers of the elderly."

"And it was all to save his wife from having to be put down. He succeeded, and there was one quote of his in that article that stuck out to me. 'I couldn't stand to grow old without my true love or see our only child grow up without his mother.' So why would he inflict that same horrible fate on to somebody else?"

"So you believe that he wasn't guilty?"

"I believe it's rather odd that someone who knows the pain of losing a wife and mother, would give that very same pain to another husband and child. And I can't say for certain if I believe he did it but I do believe that there's more to the story than what we were all told."

"You know something, I like you kid. You don't stomach everything the media feeds you and you don't follow the crowd. Unusual behavior from what's expected of a sheep and I like it a great deal."

"Thank you. I think."

"But be honest with me now, aren't you a little afraid of the big, bad, wolf?" Erza teased.

"No. Not anymore. Should I be?"

"Nah. Gray may have that whole brooding, vicious, lone wolf look going on but underneath he's just a big puppy dog. He even has a special spot behind the ears that he likes to scratch."

Juvia held back a giggle as she pictured what it would be like to see how Gray would react to having his ear scratched. She would often forget that feral nature aside, wolves weren't that very different from big dogs. In fact she was almost certain that very first dogs were wolves. Ironic that in spite of that, wolves had become one of the most feared predators in the world.

At long last they arrived at the house where Gray lived with his mother. The establishment was small and lacked any bright colors but it was still decent looking and well taken care of. It wasn't trashy or unkept like one would expect the home of convict's wife and his son to look like.

"His mother is probably still at work, so it's just him in there." Erza said.

"I hope we're not interrupting anything important." Juvia said.

"Please, he's never doing anything important."

They walked up on to the front porch and Erza knocked on the door.

"We don't want any!" Gray's voice called from the other side, thinking that it was a door to door salesman or something.

"It's me." Erza called back. "And I brought along someone who wants to return something of yours."

Next thing they heard was movement coming closer to the door. Juvia nervously held her breath as she waited for him. She hoped that he wouldn't be too angry with her about losing his job. Though if he was, she wouldn't have blamed him for it. Finally the door open and there he stood, wearing no shirt. Now she was really nervous.