The celebrations were over now for an exhausted Lucy, who had left the party early and had collapsed onto her sofa the minute she got home. Natsu had eventually joined the celebrations and had apologised to Happy – and it was obvious he was forgiven as it wasn't long before Happy presented his best friend with a fish. A "get well soon present" he had called it. Relieved that the two of them were friends again Lucy had gone off to join Cana, noticing that Natsu and Gray had wandered off later in the evening – no doubt looking for a fight. They hadn't returned before she went home, though, but Lucy wasn't worried. For now, she just wanted to sleep. But a sudden knock at her door ruined all chances of that.
"Juvia? What are you doing here?" Lucy was surprised to see the other girl standing on her doorstop. She stepped back to let her in, and Juvia sniffed sadly. "Juvia came to talk to Love Rival about Gray-sama to find out why he loves her, not Juvia…" she said, looking morose, although her eyes flashed angrily at Lucy for a second. Lucy sighed – this again. "I'm not your 'love rival' – Gray doesn't even like me like that, and I only see him as a friend," she explained in exasperation, pretty sure this was about the 10th time in the past month she'd had to tell Juvia she wasn't interested in Gray.
"Besides, Lucy has Natsu." Another voice had chimed in and Lucy spun around to see Erza coming out of her bathroom wrapped only in a towel. "Erza! Why are you here?!" Lucy demanded, wondering how she never got any peace in her own home – if it wasn't Erza in the bathroom, then Gray was in the kitchen, or Natsu was in her bed… When that occurred to her, she raced over to her bed and threw back the covers just to check. Fortunately it was empty and Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. Then she processed what Erza had said. "I don't 'have' Natsu!" she said heatedly, glaring at Erza, who was by now fully clothed. "Juvia doesn't care about love rival and Natsu, Juvia only cares about Gray-sama!" Juvia wailed from where she stood by the door. Erza and Lucy exchanged a glance – this looked like it was going to be a long night.
Mere minutes later they were all situated around Lucy's kitchen table, each with a mug of hot liquid in front of them; Juvia staring gloomily into hers as through it would solve all her problems. Lucy was unsure what to say, but luckily Erza had no such qualms. "Frankly, you're too clingy. He's never going to like you back if you don't even give him room to breathe," she said honestly, which caused Juvia to look up in surprise. "But Juvia loves Gray-sama, Juvia doesn't want to be without him!" she exclaimed, which caused both Lucy and Erza to raise their eyebrows. "Juvia, you realise you've just proved Erza's point?" Lucy asked. Juvia opened her mouth to respond, but soon closed it as she realised she had nothing to say which would realistically be a good argument – nor did she particularly want to get into an argument with Erza, because that never ended well for anybody.
"I suppose you're right," Juvia said sadly, managing to resist the temptation to stare back into her mug. "But I don't know what to do," she continued, hoping that Lucy or Erza would be able to help – that was why she was here, after all. "Just talk to him – " here Lucy was interrupted by a derisive snort from Erza, but she ignored her and kept talking. "Talk to him, but don't be so possessive about it. And if you find out that he doesn't like you, then that's something you're just going to have to deal with," she finished firmly, and was surprised to see Juvia nodding (although it looked like she was doing so reluctantly), but she did feel quite pleased with herself for having managed to come up with some good advice.
"Juvia will take that advice," Juvia said as she stood up suddenly, downing the rest of her drink for courage – although what courage you could get from tea, she wasn't quite sure. Her plan had been to go now and speak to Gray-sama – no, just Gray – but she was halted by Erza slowly holding up a hand. "Wait a minute Juvia," she said. "We're not quite finished here – we still have Lucy to sort out." At this, Lucy turned to Erza with wide eyes and her mouth open in surprise. "What do you mean, sort me out?! I have nothing to sort!" she exclaimed, but realisation dawned when she saw Erza's pointed look. "Oh. You mean Natsu, don't you?" When Erza nodded, Lucy did the opposite and shook her head, sighing. "Look, I don't like Natsu like that, he's just a friend," she tried to explain, but her friends were having none of it.
"Sorry Lucy, but you definitely do – it's obvious to pretty much everyone, except from you and him," Erza said and Juvia nodded – with a lot more enthusiasm this time.. Lucy was scowling and wanted to object, but there was a part of her beginning to wonder if perhaps she really did like him as more than a friend – after all, she thought, he was always looking out for her, and now she thought about it, he did have a really nice smile… NO! Lucy mentally shook herself; she couldn't afford to think like that. Literally. She had rent to pay, and if something bad were to happen between them, she didn't know if she would be able to face going on jobs with him, and she wasn't yet comfortable with taking a big job on her own, so it looked like any thought of…of a relationship would have to wait until she was sure everything would work out.
"…and so I have a dare for you both. I dare you each to speak to Natsu and Gray and tell them how you really feel. Tonight." Lucy blinked and realised she'd missed half of what Erza, who had a very smug and almost evil smile on her face, had said. "Um, what?" Lucy managed to get say, before a look from Erza (which basically said "weren't you listening?", and Lucy wasn't stupid enough to say she wasn't!) prevented her from going further. She noticed that Juvia was looking pretty pale at the prospect. "Juvia can't do that," Juvia mumbled, with a terrified expression on her face. Erza shook her head. "Of course you can Juvia – and you will," she paused, smirking. "Otherwise, as a forfeit, you can't speak to him for a whole week." Lucy genuinely thought Juvia was about to pass out at that; she had never seen anybody look so ill. Then Erza turned to Lucy but before she could even open her mouth to give Lucy her forfeit, Lucy suddenly spoke up. "Don't worry, we'll do it – both of us will. On the condition that you confront Jellal about his 'fiancé' the next time you see him." Swiftly standing up, Lucy caught Juvia's arm and pulled her out of the house, leaving a stunned Erza standing alone in the kitchen.
Lucy wasn't terribly sure where that sudden confidence had come from, but she suspected it had something to do with just how much she had had to drink with Cana only an hour or so earlier. Whatever the reason, she couldn't back down now, and she couldn't let Juvia either – it would very likely kill Juvia to have to go a day without talking to Gray, never mind an entire week. It was very clear that the party was still going on, but the two girls kept to the shadows, not wanting to be seen lest someone asked what they were up to. They were heading in the direction Lucy had seen both Natsu and Gray go off in earlier, but whether or not they would still be there was a different story – so just in case, they would take it in turns to take sly looks between the trees to see if either boy could be spotted at the party. As of yet, there was no sign of Natsu or Gray, although Happy had been spotted talking to Carla – it was odd that he wasn't with Natsu, Lucy thought, but she wasn't about to go over and ask him about it! "Juvia thinks we should just give up…" Juvia said hesitantly, her face still ashen, after they'd been searching (to no avail) for nearly ten minutes. Lucy shook her head, still holding onto Juvia's arm, but whether that was to stop her from running away or to provide herself with some support she wasn't quite sure. "No Juvia, we need to do it – I don't know about you, but I don't feel like crossing Erza!" Lucy said, trying to make light of it. "Also, try to stop referring to yourself in third person…it's really distracting," she added, almost as an afterthought. Juvia nodded. "Juv… I will try…try not…" she trailed off slowly, and Lucy looked at her in concern. She was about to ask what was wrong, but when Juvia just pointed ahead of them wordlessly she looked ahead to see what had so stunned her friend.
Whatever Lucy had expected to see, it wasn't… this, and she had to supress a gasp – although it was very difficult. Juvia and Lucy were still standing on the outskirts of a small clearing, but they were hidden enough by the trees that they could observe, but not be observed themselves. They had indeed found Natsu and Gray, but certainly not how they had expected to find them… For one thing, they weren't fighting. The only thing that was in anyway familiar was that Gray was shirtless – but so was Natsu?! Lucy was very much distracted by that sight, but upon seeing the tears forming in Juvia's eyes she quickly pulled herself together. Juvia's grip on Lucy's arm tightened as they watched the scene in front of them unfold – Gray was sitting atop a log with Natsu straddling him, and both boys had their arms wrapped around each other. But not wrapped around each other's necks, as Lucy had expected; instead they were locked in a passionate embrace, totally oblivious to their surroundings.
At least, they were oblivious until Juvia, who was pretty much beside herself with grief, let out a small noise of surprise which carried across the otherwise silent clearing. Natsu and Gray sprang apart suddenly, Natsu almost tumbling to the ground as he tried to jump off Gray's lap, and he would have fallen if it weren't for Gray reaching out to catch him. If it weren't for how surreal this was, and how upset Juvia was, Lucy thought she would have found the whole thing rather sweet. "Juvia!" Gray exclaimed, shocked to see them both there. "What are you doing here?!" But Juvia was too upset to answer, and instead turned and ran back through the trees, tears blurring her vision. Lucy was torn between staying and finding out what on earth was going on, or going after Juvia – she wasn't exactly close with her, but it was obvious how much she cared for Gray, so seeing him with Natsu would undoubtedly have hurt her. After a slight hesitation Lucy ran after Juvia, ignoring Natsu's cry of "Lucy, wait!"
With a sigh, Natsu sat beside Gray, subconsciously leaning against him. He was aware of Gray's arm around his shoulders and he smiled, in spite of what had happened. "Are you going to speak to Juvia?" Natsu asked as he looked up at Gray. Gray nodded and lowered his head down to Natsu's. "Yes, but not right now," he replied. "I have something important to take care of first," he continued, before softly kissing Natsu, thinking as he did so that it was something he would never get tired of.