"Get the lead outta your ass," Gajeel harped at the so-called Element Four. Master Jose had insisted he tag along 'just this once' to see how the team did working together and report back to him. Why people seemed to think reconnaissance was his thing, the Dragon Slayer would never know.

At any rate, the others were all pathetic. One little wyvern invasion and suddenly it was so hard to do something as simple as keep the townspeople from being eaten. Totomaru blamed the cold of the mountains, and Sol that whatever-many feet of snow had separated him from the earth. Gajeel really wasn't paying much attention to the specifics.

Needless to say, he'd needed to step in. Fucking pathetic. Aria and the new girl had been a bit less terrible, but still got overpowered in the end. None of them would've lasted five minutes against Metallicana.

And now they had the nerve to keep him waiting on the trip home. Something about 'injuries' and 'dislocated' and 'my wound re-opened I need to stop the bleeding'. Pathetic. Admittedly, the rain did nothing to help his mood.

As they trudged onward, eventually the new girl approached him. "Juvia wanted to thank you..." she offered.

"Tch," Gajeel scoffed. "Couple little dragon wannabes like that ain't got a chance against a Dragon Slayer, girlie."

"..It's Juvia."

"Don't care."

The rain woman leered a bit behind him and mentally sighed, but refrained from doing so aloud. It was also rather more than a 'couple' wyverns- far more than the report had indicated, in fact. Weren't they normally solitary creatures..? Or was she misremembering.. Well, at any rate, Juvia was fairly sure that he wouldn't care about that either. She'd have to remember to say something to Master Jose.

All right then.. It was clear Gajeel was not the most sociable person, but he was the only one she hadn't really had a chance to speak to since her promotion, so she figured she may as well take the opportunity to try. It seemed she'd need something more tailored to his interests, though.

"So.. Gajeel was raised by a real dragon?"

Glancing over his shoulder at her, he gave a snarky look. "Nah, I just picked up eating nails one day. You are what you eat, you know." A few seconds later, and a smirk cracked. "Gi hi hi."

Wait, that was.. a joke? Juvia wasn't certain if that laugh was meant to be at her or with her. Moving on with the only response she could think of, she countered, "But you also drink water."

The smirk faded. The hell is she on about? If he wasn't so bored, Gajeel wouldn't have given this chick the time of day. As it was, she seemed like a decent fighter and was pretty easy on the eyes, but he still wasn't sure how long he'd put up with her. "What's your point?"

"Juvia doesn't," she explained. "Or.. Juvia does, but she doesn't need to." An eyebrow quirked again, and Gajeel realized she had moved up to walk more beside than behind him now. "But Juvia's body is made entirely of water."

"Huh?" Weren't.. most people made of a lot of water anyway? Gajeel was 90- well.. maybe 80.. 75% sure he'd heard something like that? Whatever. The thing he was thinking of didn't seem to be what she meant either way. "Look pretty normal to me."

Well, she did, anyway. Before his eyes, one of her arms stretched out before her and melted away into a stream of liquid up to her shoulder; keeping more or less the same proportions as her arm, it waved and thrashed in place before them. Then, suddenly, the water whip slashed through her own waist, causing Gajeel to jump slightly. However, her torso just floated, as though still invisibly connected to her lower half, and the would be wound clearly faded into globules of water. Within a few seconds, her body had taken a fully human appearance again, and Gajeel found himself legitimately interested for the first time since meeting the woman.

"Huh. That's pretty handy," he admitted, though it was quickly followed up by a haughty, "Not as cool as mine o' course." Punching the air in front of him, Gajeel's arm became a pillar of iron.

Juvia simply nodded, however. "Yes. I saw you use it against the wyverns."

"...Hmph." Yeah, that made sense. He supposed he probably would have noticed her thing if he hadn't been paying attention pretty much exclusively to their opponents, but whatever. ..Oh hey. "So I guess yours is why you're not as beat up as the rest o' the losers, huh?"

Ignoring the implication that she was among 'the losers', Juvia nodded again. "Juvia's body can handle almost anything."

"...Gi hi hi hi."

"...What is it?"

Gajeel almost explained, but thought better of it and shook his head. "Nothin'." ... On a totally unrelated note, of course. "How old're you anyway, Blue?"

Were the nicknames really necessary? Well, she supposed this one was a little better. "Juvia will be sixteen in... about two weeks," she answered, taking just a moment to count the days.

"Dang." He was legitimately impressed. Only a little, of course. Still, she was even younger than him or Totomaru. That was saying something.

"..What about you?" asked the water wizard.

That elicited something between a scoff and a laugh. "Hell if I know. Ain't like dragons think much o' birthdays." Who cared about one year when you lived for centuries? Not that Metallicana ever would've known his birthday, but he still could've celebrated the day he took Gajeel in or something. Selfish bastard through and through, really; he should've seen his abandoning him from miles off. Whatever. That was six years ago now, and Gajeel didn't need him anyway.

All the same, the girl grew a bit melancholy. "Juvia.. never celebrated birthdays either.." She tried, of course, but..

"Huh." It was entirely neutral.

"Not.. since she was a little girl, at least. People said Juvia's parties were... gloomy." She cringed at the word, averting her eyes.

"Gi hi hi!" came the hearty laugh in response. ..Wha? "Can't be gloomier than Sir Cries-a-lot," he snarked, nodding back toward Aria.

This caused Juvia to blush a bit, feeling bad that she found that at all comforting even at another's expense, but finding it reassuring all the same. "You don't.. mind the rain?" she asked hesitantly.

Gajeel shrugged. "'snot too bad every now and then." It was about this time that the young man realized just how long they'd been talking. Huh. She actually managed to rope him in, didn't she? Well, she'd better not get used to it, but he supposed she was slightly less annoying to talk to than most people. If he was bored.

For all that he tried to justify it in his mind, some part of him was aware he honestly related to this girl a bit. He was a monster, and he had few qualms with that, but other people's reactions could get tiring. Her power by comparison seemed.. tamer, but he could imagine it had similar effects. Hell, probably worse, given she clearly wasn't as tough as him. Well, if she was lucky, some combat would temper her. If not, that wasn't his problem. But... eh. He was feeling nice at the moment.

"Gi hi. Tell ya what, Blue. Just so long as I don't start rusting you an' me'll be just fine."

Was.. that a real concern? Did living iron rust? These thoughts rushed to Juvia's mind for just a moment, but upon seeing his cocky grin, she decided it must have been a joke and smiled back at him. After a few moments of comfortable silence, another thought came to mind. "It's still Juvia," she teased.

"Still don't care." But this time, at least he was smiling.

So occupied were they by conversation that neither noticed just how much the rain had let up.

In the weeks to follow, Gajeel mostly reverted to his usual standoffish self. He would acknowledge Juvia in passing every now and then, and once or twice a very brief conversation did arise, but the rain woman was becoming rather convinced that their trip back from that job had been a one-time thing. She couldn't blame him, but it was a little disappointing.

On that note, apparently she wasn't to worry about the wyverns unless they turned up on the request board again. They hadn't been hired to find out why there was a swarm, only to stop it. She supposed that made sense.

At any rate, it seemed today was going to be slow. The only downside to being one of the Element Four was that she was now expected to take only the highest calibur of jobs; 'stooping' to smaller requests was rather frowned upon. So times like this, when there were no such jobs in queue, could get a little dull. Sol and Aria had taken the last one yesterday, and were expected back this afternoon. With any luck, they'd bring more work with them.

For now, though, Juvia sat in the guild lounge, daydreaming. Her thoughts wandered from magical theory to the latest romance novel she'd been reading to whether or not she should restitch the mouth on her current teru-teru-bōzu or simply make another one. So lost had she become in her thoughts that she didn't notice right away when the seat across from her was taken.

Suddenly, though, a slice of cake was pushed in front of her. Startling slightly, she looked up to see their local Dragon Slayer with a slice of his own. "Gajeel..?"

"It's your birthday, right?" he asked through a mouthful of cake.

It... was actually tomorrow, but Juvia was too stunned to correct him. "You..."

He shrugged. "Figured since neither'f us ever really celebrate we could get together and have a pity party," he snarked.

She didn't know what to say. He was.. being flippant.. and he got it wrong... but he remembered, at least in spirit.

His smile faded, replaced with an irritated look. "What's the deal? Don't like cake or somethin'?"

It was only at this point that Juvia thought to check her face and realized she was crying. The rather decreased awareness in that regard was one of a number of drawbacks to having a body of water. Wiping her face and shaking her head, she answered, "Oh no, it's not that. Juvia just..."

What flavor was this, even? Some sort of chocolate with extra chocolate, drizzled in chocolate and filled with chocolate? It looked a little rich for her taste. But it was the thought that counted. "Thank you, Gajeel," she said sincerely, then dug in.

Oh goodness, wow. For just a moment she fought the urge to gag, but she got over it. That really was rich. But tastebuds be damned, she would eat it all and she would love it. She had roughly twelve years of missed birthday cakes to make up for, after all!

"Don't get all sappy over it or nothin'. It's just cake," he grumbled, finishing his own cake and then starting on the fork.

Mentally shaking her head, Juvia simply responded, "Of course not." Noticing him then, she asked, "...Are you having dessert for your dessert?"

"...Gotta prob'em wif it?" he asked, mouth full of metal.

Juvia simply chuckled. "Not at all." As much as he tried to hide it, she was now quite certain there was more to Gajeel Redfox than met the eye. He simply needed the right push to show it.

In the months after, the Dragon Slayer would grow very, very weary of the rain woman at times. She was often at his heels and being a pest. More than once, he snapped at her, and two or three times physically lashed out, though both of them knew his iron fists would do nothing to her body of water. In the same timeframe, however, the two often did talk and became closer. She learned he had a closeted passion for music and songwriting, and he was actually pretty good- even if his voice didn't quite do his work justice.

There was no one in Phantom Lord she especially disliked, but none with whom she shared nearly the connection she found with Gajeel. He didn't always like opening up, and sometimes when he realized what she was making him do he would get angry at the mere thought of seeming human. He was a dragon, a monster, and he wasn't about to have anyone forget it. Juvia didn't quite buy it. That stubbornness was frustrating, but also a little endearing, she found. Besides, there was one lesson Juvia had learned from a very young age:

Given a proper amount of force, water could break through steel.

A/N: This went rather different than I intended it to but I am pretty okay with how it turned out. :'3

Also, that last line is one that Juvia says to Gray when demonstrating her magic in their fight. If anyone ever feels the urge to write a very different if-you-know-what-I-mean fic working from that quote, I would read that so hard. xD

As always, please review. :'3