Disclaimer: All rights of Fairy tail go to Hiro Mashima!

No one would stop him. He looked to the time lacrima again and another minute had passed. Lucy was gone for too long, who was he to trust the strangers who said she was alright? He looked at his stuff and all was still there. They had offered him a drink, but he had told them he wasn't thirsty. Truth be told, a glass of water would be nice but he was getting more paranoia by the minute. Maybe they would put something in the glass to keep him here. He thought about leaving but that seemed rather hard with two whole backpacks to carry along. So the next thing which came to his mind was to ran outside as fast as he could and block the door with his ice magic. A sigh escaped as he thought how silly it was, the S-class mage would definitely be faster than him. He already heard about the lightning speed of the lightning dragon slayer. It already passed 6 o'clock and Lucy still wasn't back. They told him the both of them would be back by 5, but no trace was found. He asked Mirajane if she had a room for him, joking about the hard ground in the woods and hoping she would lead him to one. She didn't argue and told him with a smile that there was still room on the first floor. He took his bags and she led him to the room when he discarded the offers of the thunder tribe to stay and drink some beers with them. When he was alone, he waited for another 10 minutes before making his move. He opened the window and reached for the wall next to it. With his two hands he moulded his magic, only seen by a cold air around his hands and when they touched the wall, ice ran down it creating some kind of improvised stairs. He packed one bag with the essentials and climbed down. When he succeeded in leaving the bar behind him, he walked towards the direction the forest was situated according to several customers of the bar. When he walked past the bar and some other houses, thoughts of Lucy passed his mind. The medicine for her nightmares was the first thing he had packed from her bag. He was just hoping she wasn't getting herself in trouble… The real world couldn't be more different from the Heartfilia mansion. No one had to be friendly to her here, because her name meant nothing in these towns. He just hoped there weren't guys with wrong intentions who would find her wandering through the streets. He shook his head and told himself not to think that way. When he focused on the road, someone was coming his way which disturbed his thoughts. How closer he got, the more he recognised the blue hair. But he didn't see any blonde hair next to it, not even a cloaked figure…

"Hey! Juvia isn't it? Isn't Lucy with you?"

Juvia looked up at the sweet voice she missed all day. Couldn't he just worry about her instead of wondering about that celestial mage? He ran towards her and stopped in front of her to ask more about the situation and she was nowhere near the thought of willing to tell him everything.

"Is she alright? What happened?"
"I… We…"

She didn't want to continue as she knew he wouldn't like what she was going to say. But his posture told her all she needed to know as he seemed too worried to think about anything else. The picture of her and him that she formed in her head shattered right then and there. She put on her professional mask and smiled sadly at him while reporting the details of her job like she always did, trying to leave out the emotion that was boiling in her stomach. She locked her jealousy away and tried to help her dream boy as much as she could.

"I found the person who was going to teach her, but Lucy was gone from the spot I told her to stay."
"She's lost?!"
"Let me finish. When we found her, there was this dragon slayer with pink hair who-"
"Wait, a boy with pink hair?"
"Yeah, he didn't let us get to her and then there was a fight and-"
"Did he have scales? And horns? Or tattoos?"

Juvia was getting annoyed by his questions and looked at him like he was asking her nonsense. She wasn't sure why needed to know such details, it's not like he had seen him before right?

"No, he was just a dragon slayer with pink hair."

Gray seemed to think and eventually he took hold of her shoulders and looked serious at her. His dark orbs were so hypnotising she could drown in them if she didn't come to her senses. She focused and tried to hear what he was saying while she was distracted from his firm grip on her shoulders. Those hands would be capable to do so much more with her body… A blush appeared on her cheeks when she felt the odd feeling in her stomach and she finally listened to what he had to say. He asked if she knew where Lucy was and if she could take him there. Juvia didn't know why he was being so friendly instead of raging against her, but the thought of travelling with him made her heart beat faster. Even if it was for this small journey. She felt something she never felt before when she was near him… She couldn't explain it, not love on first sight but his compassion towards her was mesmerizing. It was a long time ago that someone had done or said something sweet to her like him without expecting something back... So she told him that he could count on her and they walked towards the dragon slayer's house a couple of towns ahead. Maybe he was just being friendly because she was the only one he knew with the knowledge of where Lucy was, but she enjoyed every minute of it. She tried to make the most out of it while he was still nice to her. They didn't talk much, but they shared some snacks when they paused for a couple of minutes. When they reached the mansion, she didn't know what to do. She knew who was inside but didn't know how Gajeel would react on her return. She wasn't proud of what she did five years ago so she hadn't set a foot near him or the others. She would rather be alone than face the fury of her friends… maybe he didn't want to see her again so she turned to Gray to say her goodbye. Gray knocked casually on the door to her surprise and Juvia had no time to leave before a familiar face opened the door. She stood still as she absorbed his features. He had some more piercings in his nose, his black hair was a bit longer and he had different clothes, but it was unmistakably her old friend.

"So busy today at this house! What do you want?"
"I'm Gray Fullbuster and I was wondering if Lucy is here?"

The tall man grinned and laughed at his last name.

"Fullbuster? ... pfff hahaha! Didn't hear that one before! Haha that's a great ice breaker you got there buddy! Oh well… It so happens that my girl picked up a stray with that name and-"

When the guy finally noticed Juvia he stopped his sentence and blinked to see if he was dreaming.

"Juvia?"
"Hey Gajeel."
"Are you… Is this real?"
"I just had to point the direction for this guy, so I'll be going right now then. I won't bother you any longer."

Before she turned to leave, she was lifted up by strong arms and she almost chocked in the embrace from Gajeel. Surprised at his reaction, Juvia didn't know how to react.

"You're here! Hey Levy, Juvia is here! Wow girl you've been gone for a long time. Not even a letter or anything! I thought I taught you some manners!"
"I thought you didn't want me here."
"What's that for rubbish? For that stupid argument? Still as emotional as always I see. Come inside! And your friend can come too!"

When they walked inside, the first thing Gray saw was the flash of pink who was standing with his back towards the front door facing something. When he looked at the couch, he saw Lucy laying on it and she seemed in pain, so he rushed towards her and asked to the pink guy what the hell he had done to her. He felt her forehead and she had a high fever. The guy told him to back off and that some dragon slayer was on her way to treat her wound. When he looked at the man, he saw that his own torso was wrapped in bandages and other wounds were also treated with first aid. Lucy had the same bandages but only on her leg.

"So you do exist. How do I know that you didn't do this?"
"What's that supposed to mean? Otherwise I wouldn't be standing here you jerk. You can ask her who did it when she wakes up. I'm Natsu by the way, you impolite popsicle."

Lucy mumbled in her sleep and Gray knew it wasn't from pain. He recognised the mumbling. She was back to dreaming the all too familiar nightmare.

"Is she also some kind of dragon slayer?"

Gray looked at Natsu and wondered why he would ask such a stupid thing.

"She's a celestial mage, not a dragon slayer."
"Weird, because she knows the language."
"You mean that you know what she's mumbling in her sleep?"
"Yeah sure, it's the old language from the dragons. I learned it from my father. It would be bad if I couldn't understand it, right Gajeel?"

Gajeel was busy with talking to Juvia and Levy, so Natsu lifted his shoulders and dismissed what he was saying. Gray pulled him back to the conversation by asking him to translate it. Natsu could tell it was hard for him to ask for help. Great, another person who didn't like him. He decided to help nevertheless.

"She's saying something like: Stop you death of shadows, dragon guard your heart. But it's rubbish, she's always saying the same thing."
"And she doesn't wake up?"
"Nope, it's been going like that for two hours straight."

Gray didn't know what this was. He ignored the fact that the embodiment of Lucy's nightmares was standing right next to him and focused on Lucy. She had the same dream, but she didn't wake up. How could they get her out of that loophole? When he would let her take the medicine, would it help? Or would it get worse? Dreams were on another plain and he couldn't there. She was fighting in her dreams and he couldn't help. Suddenly the doorbell rang and there seemed to be a small girl in front of the door. The others welcomed her and led her to Lucy, so it seemed that she was the healer. Gray backed away to give her the space she needed and she started working on the wound of Lucy's leg. When he talked to the others it seemed that there were now three dragon slayers with each a cat for their own, who knows why. Levi seemed to be a script mage and he already knew Juvia. The redheaded woman was very quiet and was eating strawberry cake, it seemed as though she was distracted by her mind while she was eating and she didn't say anything. The others told her that Erza was a Recuip mage.

He looked around and concluded this was a very powerful group. So he was wondering who had been able to do this damage on the dragon slayer. Were they not there when he fought? That would mean that Lucy had been alone with the pink guy before they got attacked. What was he playing? And the attacker would also be strong enough to fight a dragon slayer, according to legends they possessed the true power of a dragon which could explain the scales in Lucy's nightmare. If Lucy would become an apprentice of that guy who attacked them, she would definitely become a lot more powerful but he didn't know if that was the best option seen the circumstances.

Title: Alex Clare – Tell me what you need

Thank you for reading!