Chapter 8

Girl Talk

~Juvia~

(Two weeks prior to the ending of chapter 7)

Juvia opened her eyes to find herself in an unfamiliar place. "Gray?" she called out. No one answered. Oh, right, she was in her dorm room. She had gotten so used to living at Lucy's that her own home had become unfamiliar to her. She quickly got herself ready and headed went to go wake up Wendy and Levy. They had planned on walking to the guild together for breakfast.

She tapped on Wendy's door. "Coming!" said an extra happy voice.

"Wendy?" Juvia called, "You almost ready?"

The little dragon slayer opened the door. "Yes," she replied, "Don't I look cute?" She closed the door and locked it. This couldn't possibly be Wendy. The girl took note of Juvia's confusion and decided to explain. "Levy gave me some advice on how to look more mature! Since Jellal will be staying here for a week or two and I acted pretty immature yesterday..." Wendy blushed. "I don't want him to think I'm just some kid…"

"Okay…" Juvia thought the idea was a little over the top. Wendy was crushing on a guy who was about ten years her senior. Not to mention he had just gotten married. "Why don't we go get Levy?"

The two girls walked down the hall to find Levy's door half open. "Levy?" Wendy called, "Is everything alright?"

A very tired and worn out Levy came to the door. "Is it morning already?" She asked. "I must have stayed up all night working on Gajeel's present."

"A present for Gajeel?" Juvia asked.

"Is his birthday today?" Wendy asked.

"No, silly." Levy smiled lightly. You could easily tell she was thinking about Gajeel. It was quite obvious that she liked him, but he was completely clueless. "It's been 18 months since he joined the guild, so I was making a little gift to congratulate him with." She guided the two to her room, which was trashed with multiple iron blocks of all shapes and sizes. "I wanted to give him a big one, but I don't want him to think I was a weirdo or anything so then I decided to give him a small one, but then I thought maybe he would think that I was being cheap and not want to use any magic power, so then I made a medium sized one, but it looked too plain so I tried to come up with a design and I finally decided to make it in the shape of the Fairy Tail symbol."

"And it took you all night to do that?" Juvia sounded unimpressed.

"I ran out of magic power sometime last night so I had to rest for a bit."

"And you did it all for love?"

"N-n-nooo…." Levy stammered. "I-l-l-l d-d-don't like him o-o-or an-n-nything…" Her face turned beet red. "No, N-n-not at all!" She started to walk backwards and tripped over one of the chunks of iron. "Ahh!" she cried.

Wendy helped pull her up. "It's okay if you don't want to admit it."

"I don't like him!" Levy said stubbornly. "He is just a really, really great friend!"

"Anyways," Juvia said as her stomach growled, "Isn't it about time we got breakfast?"

"Okay!" Levy looked relieved to have a change in the conversation. She grabbed her present for Gajeel and happily skipped all the way to the guild.

After being left behind, Wendy and Juvia began to talk.

"So how long have you been in the guild, Juvia?" Wendy asked.

"I came a little before Gajeel joined," She answered, "Why do you ask?"

"I have not been here long either, so we share similar feelings."

"Yeah I guess."

"Why did you join the guild?" Wendy felt that she needed to know.

"I fell in love…" Juvia's eyes gave a dreamy look.

Just as she said that, Gray appeared behind them. He looked tired and worn out.

"Wow," Wendy said. "How much sleep did you get last night?"

"As a matter of fact," Gray began, "I didn't get much sleep at all. I was about half way back last night, and I ran into this weird lady…"

"And what else happened?" Juvia asked. What could she have done to my lovely Gray?

"She spent the entire night asking about Natsu." He told her, "And when I told her he had died-"

"Natsu died?!" Wendy shrieked.

"Yeah, I couldn't find them anywhere," Gray reached for his pocket, "and I found this," he said as he pulled out Lucy's ribbon.

"Oh, Lucy…" Juvia's eyes became watery.

"I'll tell you the rest later." Gray said quickly, "I have to let the guild know." And with that, he ran off.

~Levy~

Levy reached the doors of the guild and quietly opened them. She tried to walk without making a whole lot of noise, but the wood creaked and Gajeel turned around to see her.

"Hey, what's up, Bookworm?" Gajeel greeted her as if he had known her all his life.

Levy handed him the iron. "You have been a member of the guild for 18 months now so I wanted to give you a present."

"Um, not that I'm keeping track or anything," Mira interrupted, "But I thought that it was last week."

Levy blushed. "I'm sorry Gajeel. I thought it was this week."

"It's okay, Bookworm. This stuff is good." Gajeel said in between bites. He gave her a thumbs up. "How did you make it, Bookworm?"

"It's my magic," Levy replied. "And don't call me Book-"

Gray came bursting through the doors of the guild, sweaty and out of breath, "Lucy and Natsu are dead!"

"WHAT?!" Mira cried.

"Impossible!" Cana gasped.

"It's true…" Gray said with tears in his eyes. He showed everyone Lucy's ribbon. "I… I…" He began to look around. "Hey where's Erza? She's part of the team, she needs to know."

"He and Erza went on a special mission." Master Marakov had come out of his office.

"Jellal..." Wendy said, "and Erza...?" Levy turned to see her friends come through the doors. She had left them behind? Oops…

"Yes, they need to see someone concerning the Doomed Couple of Zeref."

"The Doomed Couple of Zeref?"

"It isn't of importance right now. I will tell everyone about it when I hear back from them."

~Lisanna~

(We are now back to where chapter 7 left off)

Lisanna opened her eyes and found herself in a strange situation. Was she? Where were Mira and Elfnii-chan? There was a strange witchdoctor looking man and a girl who looked like she had been through a big fight.

"Are you Lisanna Strauss?" the girl asked.

"yes," Lisanna said, a bit confused. "How do you know my name?"

"I'm friends with Natsu! I'll be glad to take you to him!" the girl exclaimed.

Natsu… this girl was friends with Natsu. What had he gotten himself into this time? Thinking about Natsu put her in a daze. She then heard the girl screaming in agony. She ran over to her. The girl passed out in her arms. When she looked up, the man and his things were gone. Something odd was going on and she knew the one thing she had to do. Find Natsu.

Hello! Finally caught up! ^.^ Chapter 9 will be out this Saturday and we will be right on track :)

So, Lisanna is officially back! What kind of sorcery is this? Who is behind it? Will Jellal and Erza be ok? What about Lucy? Will she survive?

Chapter revisions are about 99% done and I will start writing chapter 20 soon!

Thank you: SecretMindOtaku7, corialanus, Dreamgirl32, skylar, and GhostAvatar for reviewing! Your reviews mean so much to me :)

Till Saturday!

-ashlieswifty