Disclaimer; Fairy Tail and all it's characters belong solely to Hiro Mashima!
A/N This chapter has been edited due to spelling, grammar mistakes and to improve this story for all you readers and fans!
*Gray's p.o.v*
I sat on the train, heading home towards the guild, watching my current partner sleep on the bench across from my own. She hadn't been looking to hot throughout the entire time we'd been working and I was starting to worry about her. The job had gone relatively smoothly considering I hadn't really looked at what job we'd picked until we got on the train to depart, we'd picked a request to help a small town with their annual festival. I'd been silently cursing and plotting Bixlow's down fall for making me do this all the way until we'd reached the designated location. The thing that was just starting to dawn on me was the fact that even when I'd asked Juvia to go with me, she hadn't gone all crazy over lovey dovey on me. She had been calm and cool the whole time, when we'd been working the girls who had approached me hadn't been drowned or had a threatening presence looming behind them. Juvia had in fact been acting very strangely towards me the whole time!
I looked at the sleeping water mage trying to figure out just what had made her change? I mean ever since I'd flat out refused the girl she hadn't really shown any signs of changing her warped stalker-ish idea of love..but she'd stopped calling Lucy her love rival, which was a relief. But for the last week or so she'd barely spoken to me, nothing unusual there, but I hadn't noticed her stalking me...there in was the out of character behaviour. Juvia had been avoiding me or so it felt like and if I'm honest I'd liked it...unless she teamed up with Lyon, then I felt angry for some reason. I'd gotten what I wanted hadn't I? No more stalker!
"Gr...gray.." Juvia mumbled in her sleep turning paler by the minute...and was she sweating? Must be a bad dream...Why do I even care? I got up and headed towards the little wizards room as I felt nature calling me. I was glad to get away from the mage who was making my thoughts so jumbled with her odd behaviour. Seriously what is up with her recently?
I knew what would cheer me up, a good fisy fight with Natsu and Elfman...and maybe I could ask Lucy to let Loki out to play too. That would be great, then it really would feel like the good old days. It would also help me get my frustrations out too. I returned to the still sleeping Juvia with a smirk on my face at just how clever I was, nothing sorts out your problems like a good old fairy tail guild hall brawl!
Oh that reminded me, I forgot to check my bank account before we left the town. I pulled out my wallet to count how much I had in my account and to see whether I could afford that new SE plug motorbike that I had been saving up for. Hmmm still short about 100,000 jewels. No matter, I'd just have to take another job when I get home then voila, I could go straight to the showroom and buy it! I had been looking forward to this moment for months and by god had I worked my ass off for it...
"GRAY!" Juvia screamed and bolted awake from her place on the other bench startling me out of my inner fantasies about riding my new bike, her scream making my blood run cold.
"What! What's wrong?" I asked Juvia, noticing the tears flowing freely down her pretty face. She looked at me for the first time since she'd screamed (Luckily we were in a nearly deserted carriage of the train) seeing that I was sitting across from her in the same place I had been when she'd fallen asleep a couple of hours earlier her features relaxed from grief stricken to a slightly more neutral look. She still looked paler than normal though.
"Just a dream, just that horrid nightmare again." Juvia whispered, looking down to the floor and wiping the tears from her face.
"Juvia?" I questioned the girl who was still muttering to herself under her breath. I may be cold at times but she was still a close nakama and I did worry about her.
"Yes," She squeaked looking up at me like a deer caught in headlights...hmm she looked cute like that...no not the time from that, pull yourself together man!
"Are you alright? You were screaming my name, and not in the good way that guys like to hear it," I winked not letting a chance pass me by to tease the poor girl and to try and lighten the mood. She looked in need of a good laugh, her face was so grey. Well more grey than it normally looked, it was making me majorly worry.
"Juvia is alright, Juvia just had a bad dream is all." She explained, looking me in the eyes.
"A bad dream?" I eyed the girl suspiciously, it had sounded more like a scene right out of a horror flick had been playing in her head. "Wanna talk about it seeing as I obviously had something to do with it."
"Not really anyway it's not something you don't already know about," Juvia mumbled looking out of the window.
"Oh, it was a dream about that?" I asked also turning my head to look out the window letting memories wash over me. Had my death really hit Juvia that hard? I always thought her feelings were the shallow type and that she would eventually find a new target to stalk eventually. It was why I'd never let myself get caught up in her affections, but mainly because I found it super creepy. I mean why couldn't the girl just ask to get to know me better and spend time with me normally? She was a real babe anyone could see that. She has a figure that rivals Lucy's and Erza's combined, she's intelligent and a brilliant wizard...but the deal breaker to me was the super overly attached jealous wannabe girlfriend side that overpowers all her redeeming qualities. Any guy would be lucky to have Juvia if only she would act normal-er.
"Erm Gray," Juvia said tapping my shoulder to bring me back to reality. "We're home."
"Ah okay great," I smiled a small smile at the girl as she walked towards the doors to disembark. Something hit me though, as I watched the girl walk of the train. She hadn't called me 'Gray-sama' at all for the entire trip, apart from when we'd put on a play for the younger children and had been a prince and princess. We'd had several conversations and not once had she been all gooey and love shaped eyes at me, she hadn't melted at all when I'd held her hand that one time when we were acting either. Hmm I wondered, had she finally moved on to someone else? And if so shouldn't I be happy about that and not be feeling this somewhat odd sensation in my chest?... I shook my head from side to side, trying to dislodge this weird feeling that was welling up within me. Yep a brawl at the guild was most definitely called for now to sort my head out!
*Juvia's p.o.v*
As Juvia walked back towards the guild by Gray-sama's side, Juvia found it increasingly difficult to do as Lisanna had instructed her to do and act casual. Which Juvia had been doing for the past couple of days, actually it was more like a week at this point. Juvia had wanted to melt when Gray-sama had taken ahold of her hand and called her, his princess, even if it was just for the benefit of the younger love rivals in the crowd. They weren't to bad though because Juvia knew that the idea of a prince falling for you was every young girls dream and it had made her very glad, in a way, to have inspired those dreams...even if those girls had fallen for my Gray-sama. It was forgivable as they were only children. What Juvia could not forgive was the brazen flirting of those other, more mature women at the festival. Juvia had wanted to drown them all for talking to Gray-sama in that way, but she had remembered Lisanna, Levy and Lucy's talk /warning about that kind of behaviour and had, somehow managed to keep her murderous rage controlled. The whole not calling Gray, Gray-sama at first had been hard to get rid/ hide, but Juvia was now used to it. It was only acceptable to call him that in my head still. It made Juvia proud of herself though to be able to just call to Gray-sama naturally, like how Lucy-san did.
"I'm off home before going to the guild, see you later and thanks again for the help Juvia." Gray grinned at me, as he walked off down the street that lead to his apartment with a wave of his hand in my direction.
"You're welcome. Okay Juvia will see you later." Juvia called back, watching as he disappeared around a corner. When Juvia was sure he was out of earshot she let out a sigh of relief and let herself float into a world of happiness, as she walked the last few streets to fairy tail. Juvia couldn't wait to see Lisanna and the other girls, to have a girly chat about what had happened over the course of her job with Gray-sama. Juvia never really had any girlfriends back at Phantom Lord and before that she'd never had any friends at all, which was why she treasured every bond that she had made here in fairy tail even if it was with rivals for Gray-sama's affection.
"Juvia is back everyone." Juvis stated, as she entered the guild.
"Welcome back," Everyone who was present at the guild, called out to me.
"Juvia, Juvia over here!" Juvia heard Levy call, so she started to make her way towards where the other bluenette's voice was emanating from. To Juvia's surprise she found her sitting at the table furthest from the guild door, the table that was usually reserved only for a tall, dark, grumpy dragon slayer of my acquaintance and his exceed partner.
"Hello Levy. Where is everyone?" Juvia asked pointing out the fact that most of the mages were out and the only people in seemed to be none mage customers.
"Gajeel will be back in a second, he just went to the kitchen to find more metal scraps. Lisanna is in with Master discussing the fact that Bisca and Al still haven't returned and they promised they'd be back on Friday and it's now a week on friday since their estimated arrival time. Lucy is at her apartment looking after a sick Asuka, She didn't want to pass it on to those of us at Fairy hills, and everyone else is mainly out working seeing as we're as busy as ever thanks to winning the games." Levy finished filling me in. "Any who how did the job go with Gray?" Levy questioned switching topics at lightening speed.
"It went really well, Juvia followed all the advice you guys gave her and Juvia has to say Juvia had the best time." Juvia blushed at this, bumping my two index fingers together
"Yo, Juvia you're finally back." Gajeel rumbled at me, as he retook his place at the table with a plate of scraps. "How'd it go with stripper?"
"As Juvia was just telling Levy-san, it went extremely well." Juvia smiled at who she considered her best and closest friend outside of the female mages in Fairytail. "So did Juvia miss anything while she was away?" Juvia asked looking at the two mages; who were definitely sharing a look. This caused me to wonder what Juvia has missed?
"Where do you want us to begin?" Levy asked. Oh that meant Juvia had missed some big happenings while she'd been away. Well Juvia had been gone a week so she was bound to have missed somethings.
"How about you tell Juvia the happenings in chronological order?" Juvis offered, seeing as that would make much more sense.
"First you missed Bixlow working the bar in a maid's outfit," Levy started off, to which caused me to burst out laughing. Which was a rare thing for me to do, but the image of Bixlow in a maids outfit was just so totally hilarious Juvia couldn't help herself.
"Thought you'd get a kick outta that one," Gajeel smirked, as Juvia wiped a tear from her eye. When Juvia managed to control herself once again she nodded her head at the two wizards to continue with the gossip.
"Now do you want the bad news or the good news first?" Levy asked waiting on my reply before she would continue.
"Give it to Juvia at the same time." Juvia replied. Juvia never really let herself believe in bad news unless, it was about my beloved Gray-sama.
"Well Natsu confessed to Lisanna, in front of Lucy, who turned him down. He then proceed to start an argument as to why she'd turned him down. Lisanna's answer was because she already had a boyfriend. This caused Natsu to go even nuttier than his normal rages and he demanded to know who her new bf was...It turns out Lisanna's new boyfriend is none other than Bixlow AND they kissed in front of everyone to prove it," Levy squealed at the last bit, then waited for my response.
"Natsu did what in front of Lucy-san?" Juvia growled, as she processed the information of what had happened while she'd been away...and good thing too Juvia would have drowned that asshole in her waterlock if she had witnessed that!
"Yeah I know how you feel about that Ju-chan, we were all pretty shocked as everyone thought Natsu was as head of heels for Lu-chan as she was for him, but obviously not." Levy frowned at me, as we both seemed to be sharing the same thoughts.
"But Juvia is glad that Lisanna already had a boyfriend but Juvia wouldn't have expected her to be with Bixlow, that is somewhat surprising." Juvia mumbled. "How did Lucy-san take it?"
"Bunny girl was in tears," Gajeel barked at me, but seeing as Juvia knows him. She knew it wasn't really meant for me but at the idiocy of the younger dragon slayer. Gajeel wanted to come across as uncaring but ever since he'd entered Fairy Tail, Juvia had noticed the dragon slayers change in attitude towards the idea of nakama, but especially about his shift in caring mainly for Levy. He was utterly fascinated with the small solid script mage and made it his duty to protect her as a repayment for the aggravation he'd caused when he beat her up. He'd confided that to me one night when Juvia helped him home after his 5 loss to Cana in a row. He'd also confessed to keeping tabs on love rival as well from time to time as a way to try and atone for his crimes against her. But because she was usually so well guarded by the Salamander, he'd said it wasn't much of a concern anymore to him.
"I knew he was gonna confess to the demons sister." Gajeel interjected into the silence that had fallen over our table.
"YOU KNEW!" Levy and Juvia cried in total sync with each other.
"And it may have been my fault for him doing what he did that night," Gajeel grumbled looking away sheepishly, although the rest of the guild would think he was scoffing.
"Gajeel," We hissed at him with a murderous aura around us that screamed; if you do not talk, you die! Luckily for us Gajeel actually listened to the aura.
"Well I saw Bunny girl kiss Salamander by my favourite spot under my favourite sakura tree, after I'd left you to sort the brat." He pointed at Levy here who nodded knowing what he was talking about. Juvia was glad she knew because she was clueless here. "And anyway we had a talk about a few things; in the end I walked away annoyed as hell with the guy and said you better confess sooner rather than later or let the blonde know you don't like her...or something along those lines but I never expected the damned idiot to do it in front of the whole freaking guild or blondie!" Gajeel finished in a huff. I saw Levy facepalm her forehead and shake her head, Juvia could understand why Gajeel-kun had given Natsu-san advice but she still wanted to throttle him for giving the dense guy the push he needed to do something that had undeniable made love rival cry.
"GUYS LUCY NEEDS HELP! QUICKLY !" A voice yelled from the door. Juvia snapped her head around to face the familiar voice, to see the usually immaculate Lion spirit of Lucy's looking scared and disheveled. Juvia felt panic start to take ahold of her veins as she turned to Levy and saw the same look on her face. If Loki-san was here then that meant Lucy and Asuka were in deep trouble!
"What happened?" Several people cried, as Loki rushed up to the stairs that led towards the masters office. Juvia stood up and followed him as did Levy and Gajeel-kun.
"Loki what happened to Lu-chan? And why are you here?!" Levy called out to the manic looking spirit who appeared not to hear her.
"Gajeel go!" Juvia commanded, turning to face her friend with a worried look on her face. "You can track her scent and have the best abilities to help keep Lucy-san and Asuka-chan safe until backup can arrive."
"Ju-chan is right Gajeel please go and help Lu-chan," Levy pleaded with chocolate brown puppy eyes. The next thing Juvia saw was Gajeel-kuns back exiting the guild doors in a hurry. Turning her attention back to Loki to see, that he was gone. Juvia grabbed Levy's hand and ran up the stairs to find out more information.
"Calm down Loki and explain to me what the hell is going one," Juvia heard master demand, as we arrived at his door and we entered without an invite. Our nakama is in danger and we deserved to know why!
"Lucy was bringing Asuka back from getting checked up, she wanted to make sure that Asuka really did just have a tummy bug and if it was something worse, Lucy hoped Porlyusica could ease it in someway. Any way when she was bringing Asuka back to town, they got attacked in the forest by a group of bandits." Loki explained shakily.
"Okay that's a start, but why are you here and not helping Lu-chan?" Levy asked the question we all wanted to know.
"She called Capricorn and Aries to help her, then silently asked to me come get help while she fended them off." He answered looking down cast.
"But why not call you and Capricorn to fight them off?" Juvia asked confused with love rivals choice in spirits.
"Aries can create a wool barrier to keep Asuka safe while Lucy fights along side Capricorn," Again the spirit looked dejected. "There's to many to defeat even if we were both fighting. She's trying to hold them back and protect Asuka until help arrives!"
"Juvia already sent Gajeel-kun to help," Juvia said to master looking at the odd expression on the mans face.
"How many were there Loki?" Master asked after he seemed to contemplate his question for a couple of seconds.
"At least 20 and they are all wizards, strong-ish ones too from what Virgo is telling me," Loki looked right at master now. "And things aren't looking good for Lucy either," He stated to the quiet room. At that Master left his office and walked out to the guild hall, as did we. Juvis spotted that Gray had finally arrived too, after his detour home.
"Listen up brats!" Master shouted gaining everyone's attention. "Lucy and Asuka are in trouble in the North woods any available wizard who can fight go there and help her. Gajeel is already on his way!" Master barked out his order.
"Master," Loki spoke up looking like he was about to cry. "Lucy's gone."