Gray was on the bus to the store when he looked out the window and saw Juvia standing on the corner with a big poster board sign in her hands with the words 'SAVE THE SEALS' written on it. He was at an absolute loss for the first few seconds. It was something to process.

As fate would have it, the bus had come to a stop across the street. People were currently in the process of getting on and/or getting off, and Gray had enough time to look at Juvia, see her protest, and decide to get off the bus two stops early. He crossed the street and met her at the corner.

She seemed both surprised and happy to see him walk up. She put the board aside to talk to him for a moment.

"Didn't expect to see you here,"

"I didn't expect to see you here either."

"Well you know why I'm here," she shook the board a little, referring to its bolded words, "Where did you come from?"

"I happened to be on the bus that just left the stop across the street. I was on my way to the store, but it looks like you could use some help."

"I never pegged you for the type to care."

"You don't peg me for much, do you?"

Juvia laughed. "No, I don't."

Gray shrugged. "To be honest, you're not wrong. But what kind of friend would I be if I didn't help you out? Especially since I know this kind of stuff is important to you."

Juvia flushed in spite of herself. "Thanks."

A majority of his day was spent standing on that street corner next to the downtown Magnolia intersection waving a medium sized "SAVE THE SEALS" sign in the faces of passerby and getting weird looks from drivers. He even caught Gajeel and Levy on a date across the street. Levy saw them and immediately dragged Gajeel over.

Levy saw what they were doing and wanted to help. Gajeel seemed hesitant and almost as if he were going to say something brazen about not wanting to be bothered, then Levy gave him a stern look and he sighed before cooperating. It was nice because the couple hadn't been with them the last time their group of friends met up. Now, Juvia had time to bond with them both and Gray had time to talk to Levy, whom he had kind of been ignoring since she beat him at a videogame; it was unintentional and needed to end, and he was lucky that Levy wasn't the type to take such things personally.

Sometime in the late afternoon, a pink haired girl just happened to be driving by and decided that she was going to park in a nearby spot and join them. By the way she animatedly interacted with Juvia, Gray thought it was safe to say that she wasn't so random after all. Later, he learned that her name was Meredy, and that she and Juvia had been good friends for a long time.

"I should trick Jellal into coming down here! It would be so funny, right?"

Gray raised a brow. "Wait, you know Jellal?"

Meredy nodded energetically. "Yeah! He's like my lame older brother accept we're completely unrelated."

"Okay. . ?"

Juvia smiled. "What Meredy means is she and Jellal are very good friends. I'd dare to call them family, though they don't share any blood at all."

Gray thought it was a funny thing how life turned out. It seemed that he and Juvia had a common relation before they even knew each other. The world was small indeed.

Meredy eventually decided that she would trick Jellal into coming downtown. Gray was actually looking forward to it, finding the immense amount of comraderie very satisfying. They had so many people now that Juvia had to drive home and get more boards and paint to make boards for those of them who didn't have one; he was on the verge of agreeing with that saying that more was merrier.

And then Jellal came, with Erza's hand in his and his coat over her shoulders because the day was getting cold, and Gray decided that he should get to the store before it got dark.