AN: This is extremely late, I apologize for the OOC moments, and any other mistakes I made while writing this. I'm hoping to have this finished by Wednesday. In the next chapter I'll most likely combine longing and heat, like I did with this chapter. Thanks again to sparkles princess for reviewing. Also constructive criticism is welcomed.

-Straight A Procrastinator


Chapter 3: Change and Firsts

At the return of the guilds most rambunctious lot, the barmaid was over whelmed by the onslaught of orders ranging from fire whiskeys and cakes to everything else that was normally served. Gray had taken advantage of this and stole away on a mission. Needless to say Mira was pissed. She decided then and there that he was going to get his ass kicked. Normally she would refrain from doing this, but potential couples trumped old rivalries any day.

"Erza…I have a favor to ask of you…" before Erza could respond Gajeel and Juvia returned. Perfect the wicked grin that formed on her face sent shivers down the spines of all who were near. Internally the guild members gave their blessings to the poor fool who dared to anger the she-demon.

On a train headed to the farthest town away from the guild, Gray sneezed. He contemplated the sudden pickle he found himself in, this time without any booze. At this point he can safely recognize and admit that he cared for Juvia as a friend, but his lack of knowledge about her, made him question if she should or could even call him that. He couldn't remember much about what Mira had told him about her, and everything he did know about her could be found in any generic mage magazine that featured her. The only thing he apparently knew or thought about her was that she was sweet. Gray groaned. Why did Juvia have to be so confusing? Gray scoffed to himself in irritation. Juvia was the one of the most straight forward people he's ever met. He was the one confusing himself. Changes were definitely going to be made.


When Erza and Gajeel first spotted Gray, they decided to use the stealth approach. It failed. Gray had noticed he was being followed by something, and quickly took off losing both Erza and Gajeel in a crowd. The second time they saw him, they decided to just ambush him. This was successful. They proceeded to beat the hell out of him. Well Erza did anyway; Gajeel had made a promise not to after all. That didn't mean he couldn't enjoy the show. When Erza had first been made aware of what had happened by both Redfox and Strauss, she was livid, followed quickly by guilt. She was the one who pushed him into telling Juvia how he really felt, but she never expected him to reject her, especially has harshly as he did. Guilt soon tuned into rage. She taught him better than that damn it. When they returned to the guild, mission completed, because FairyTail always completes their missions, they dumped Gray at the hands of Mira. The guild was already empty, the demon having closed up a little early tonight. The two other conspirators remained as support to the cause and to aid the bartender. Gray's instructions were clear; should he fail them, then Mira will personally beat some sense into him. Reluctantly he agreed. First thing tomorrow morning he would come to the guild, and take Juvia out for the day.

That was the plan at least; when Gray did come to the guild, Juvia was nowhere in sight. He asked around of course, but no one has seen her. By noon he was legitimately starting to worry. He never had to look or seek out Juvia before. She was admittedly a constant in his life, though he would rather give up his left nut than say it out loud. When Juvia walked in to the guild a few hours later followed by Lyon, Gray felt relief quickly accompanied by anger and possessiveness. The hell? He thought to himself, When did I start feeling this way? Or did I always feel this way and I'm just now recognizing it? When Juvia spotted him from the door way her eyes started to twinkle in warmth. Did her eyes always do that? Juvia walked up to him, but refrained from jumping him like she usually would. She compensated by hugging herself instead, he was almost disturbed by this behavior.

"Gray-Sama! You're back! Juvia is glad you made it back safely!" he didn't say anything at first, too stuck in his head to answer competently, at no response Juvia smiled an accepting, but sad smile and turned away. Lyon shouting "Juvia-chan!" broke him out of his stupor. Before Gray knew what he was doing he grabbed her wrist to stop her from leaving.

"Gray-Sama?" He gulped, not knowing what to say, He glanced at Mira who made her way behind Juvia, the demand clear on her face. Don't fuck this up.

"Would-would you like to go to dinner with me?" At Juvia's shocked expression he quickly amended it with "As friends of course!" he cringed at the panic in his voice, Juvia slowly nodded her head, a mixture of uncertainly and happiness shown through her eyes. At her response he grabbed her and ran out of the guild taking her with him. His fellow guild members were left gapping.

"Did that really just happen?!" Lucy broke the silence with her happy squeals.

Lyon chuckled "Bout time that bastard did something." Everyone stared as he left.

"Did that just happen?!" Erza exclaimed; the rest of the guild nodded in their befuddlement. For the first time in a long time, the guild was stuck in complete silence.


When they picked a restaurant and sat down Juvia stared contemplatively at Gray without saying a word. There were no hysterics, affectionate cries of adoration, no fantasies, and no emotion of complete elation. It unnerved him. "Something wrong Juvia?" She blinked, trying to put her thoughts into words, a moment passed before she answered him.

"Why did you ask Juvia to dinner?"

"Wha-?" out of anything she could have said that was the last thing he expected.

"Did Gray-Sama lose a bet?" Juvia questioned again, her hands were balled into fists in her lap.

"Of course not!" He felt guilt tug at him, was this questioning the result of his actions?

"Then Gray-Sama was forced into this somehow?" Juvia's eyes narrowed. Gray's quick cringe at this question told her all she needed to know. "I-I see…" Juvia's eyes watered a little as she stood up to leave. For the first time, Juvia was leaving her Gray-Sama. "Juvia's not so desperate as to force Gray-Sama into her company, especially when he dislikes her so. Good-bye Gray-Sama." Gray panicked a second time that day. His guilt ate at him. A pang of hurt shot at him when she said good-bye, it sounded so…eternal, he couldn't stand it.

"Wait! Juvia! Hold on!" She turned around, not knowing what to expect. She never did when it came to this man. She could tell you almost anything about him, except what went on in his head. "Look, please just sit, hear me out, please."

She sat back down; the waiter came with waters and asked for their orders. They quickly glanced at the menu before placing their orders; waiting for the waiter to leave. Silence accompanied them for the most part. The hustle and bustle of the restaurant filled in the uncomfortable silence. Juvia knew him enough not to rush him for this conversation, he's more open when he isn't pressured to talk, but her patience was waning. The waiter came back with their drinks, a soda pop for Gray, and lemonade for Juvia. "So… you like lemonade?" Gray's pathetic attempt to start a conversation amused her somewhat. She raised her eyebrow in response though.

"Gray-Sama, Juvia stayed to listen…" He sighed, right, he needed to explain himself.

"Look Juvia, I'm sorry about what happened at the ball-"

"Gray-Sama. You don't need to apologize for being honest with Juvia. In fact I expected that as your answer. If this is what this is about then-"

"Juvia, I'm asking you to please listen to me." She stopped then, she didn't expect an apology and she didn't expect for him to actually turn down the escape plan she gave him.

"What I said that night was cruel, I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have said you were weird, and I should have been nicer about it." There was a pause, Juvia didn't break it though; she sensed he had more to say. Moments passed before he spoke again.

"I also want to apologize for how I've been treating you lately. I've been a horrible friend to you; I even avoided you for a while. That wasn't cool of me. It wasn't until the other day though that I realized how much of an ass I've been. Lyon pointed it out to me; I really don't know much about you Juvia."

"Gray-Sama…Were you forced to tell me this?" Juvia wasn't sure how to feel at the moment, it was very confusing, she was finally accepting his neutrality towards her and then this happened.

"NO! I mean no it's not like that. It's true that I was forced to this dinner by Mira when I got drunk enough to tell her everything I'm telling you, but I'm choosing to tell you this because…because it's the least I could do, after everything you've done for me."

"Gray-Sama doesn't owe Juvia anything."

"But I want to." Juvia was silent, she wasn't sure how to respond to this. For years she was content to just have her fantasies, the love in the fake reality she conjured in her mind to soothe her loneliness. This though…this was real. "Look, I can't promise that I'll one day fall in love with you or anything, but I will promise to be a better friend, and to start, I want to learn and get to actually know you."

Juvia was stunned, never did she think her Gray-Sama would actually take an interest in her and her person. It wasn't of the romantic sort, but it was a start, more than she ever thought was possible.

"…Okay Gray-Sama…What would you like to know?"

This dinner would prove to be the first of many.