Chapter Three: The Truth

Juvia sat at the booth right in front of the guild doors the next day. She waited patiently all morning and ended up with Natsu and Lucy sitting next to her. It was no surprise that Natsu and Lucy ended up being a couple, but it was relieving to finally see them together.

Lucy was talking about going out to eat for that evening. Natsu and Lucy say there deciding which place to take their little gang. Then the guild doors opened and Juvia instantly stared right at it. Most of the guild was confused as to why someone was entering the guildhall since everyone was either there or just left for a mission. As Juvua started to see the silhouette of a man and a young boy she instantly stood up.

"Juvia?" Lucy asked, confused why she was suddenly standing up and staring at the open guild doors. Lucy and Natsu looked back at the guild doors. Right as they did a raven haired man stepped into the guild.

The guild was filled with gasps and whispers for a while before Juvia walked up to the man. "Does Gray-sama think everyone will recognize him? Or does he-" Juvia was cut off by Gray's lips being planted onto her own. Juvia embraced the loss as she wrapped her arms around Gray's neck, and Gray wrapped his around her waist.

As Gray pulled out of the kiss he hugged Juvia. "Maybe that'll help them think." He said into her hair.

"Did Gray-sama do that for the guild or for Gray-sama?" Juvia asked into Gray's neck.

Gray stepped back from their hug and looked at Juvia. "I might have done that for my own reasons." He smirked and held Juvia's hand as he was about to walk towards the bar but was suddenly crowded with people.

"Woah Gray, is that really you!"

"Where have you been this whole time!"

Gray had about a million questions hurled at him but one stood out the most.

"Hey Icicle Brain, why the heck did it take you so long!" An angry pink man demanded as he charged up to Gray.

"Oh hey Natsu-" Gray was interrupted by a fist landing in his gut. The lunch didn't do that much damage, it got him off guard though, that's for sure. Gray's abdomen curved in a little when Natsu punched him, but before he could retaliate someone else already was.

"Hey, don't hurt him!" Storm yelled as he stomped on Natsu's foot and punched Natsu.

Natsu was super confused and looked at Gray. "Who is this?"

There were a few whispers in the crowd as people were thinking that it might be Gray's child.

"This is Storm." Gray said as he pulled Storm away from Natsu. Storm gave them all a look that Gray would have made if he were upset or disgruntled.

After a bit of silence, besides the whispers, Lucy finally spoke up. "Is he yours?"

Gray looked down at Storm and smile before turning back to the Lucy and the crowd. "Not exactly, he's my student. But he lost his parents a while back so I'm acting as his guardian."

All of the girls in the guild were already swarming Storm and crouched down to talk to him. Mira was one of the first people to talk to Storm. "How old are you?" Storm just stared back at all of the women and he looked like a gazelle in the middle of a bunch of cheetahs.

"Where are you from?"

"Do you use magic?"

"What kind of magic do you use?"

"Is Gray a good guardian?"

Storm slowly backed up to find that Gray was not behind him as he thought, but Juvia was instead. Instinctively Storm hid behind Juvia and tightly held onto her dress.

Juvia crouched down and hugged Storm. "It's ok Storm, they just want to know you better." Storm nodded his head and let go of Juvia's dress.

Juvia stood back up and Stprm grabbed her hand. Juvia was surprised at first but then she walked back to the booth she was sitting in before. Gray saw both of them move and sat down with them.

"Sorry about all of this buddy, I'll try to talk to them about it." Gray ruffled Storm's hair as he turns to the rest of the guild and glared at them.

Lucy and Natsu sat down across from the trio and smiled at Storm. "Hi, I'm Lucy." Lucy said as she nudged Natsu.

"Eh! Hey, I'm Natsu." Natsu said as he kicked Lucy lightly under the table.

"Natsu..." Lucy warned as she lightly punched him with her left hand. Gray stopped to notice that Lucy had a shining diamond ring on her left hand.

"Woah, Lucy you're engaged?" Gray asked in disbelief. He had been gone for three years but he felt like he had never left.

"Yeah, I got engaged six months ago." Lucy smiled and her eyes softened as she held Natsu's hand.

"Nice one Natsu." Gray teased as he smirked at his old best friend.

"I could say the same to you." Natsu looked over at Juvia and then back at Gray.

Gray smiled and held Juvia's hand. "Yeah, I'd say I'm the luckiest guy in the world right now." Gray gave Juvia a light kiss and then ruffled Storm's hair again.

Both Juvia and Storm blushed a little at Gray's actions. "You guys are so cute!" Lucy said as she admired the trio.

Natsu had just been staring at Storm the whole conversation. "Are you sure that kid isn't yours?" Natsu asked as he looked from Storm to Gray and then back to Storm.

Storm looked up to Gray and Gray gave him a weird look, at least the others thought it was weird. "Of course I'm sure. He's eight so I would have been here when he was born."

"That doesn't mean he couldn't be yours..." Natsu said as looked at Gray.

Gray kind of glared at Natsu before he spoke. "What are you implying?"

"Well isn't it kinda weird that you've never had a girlfriend for your whole life." Natsu said as he emphasized on 'never'.

"Who ever said that?" Juvia asked before she could stop herself. Gray have her a look of worry when she asked.

"Well we would have noticed if he had one. Unless they were on a very long trip for a while. Like that one 'mission' Gray was on eight years ago. What were you doing on that mission exactly?" Natsu accused.

"That doesn't make sense Natsu, Juvia went on that trip with him." Lucy said and everyone say there in silence for a moment. Lucy's eyes widened and she pointed at Gray and then Juvia.

"Checkmate." Natsu smirked smugly and slouched back in his seat.

Gray and Juvia both blushed and tried to avoid each other's gaze and Natsu and Lucy's gaze. "Storm why don't you go play with Asuka and Mira." Gray said at he pointed to the said people. Storm got out of his seat and ran over to Mira and Asuka.

"That doesn't prove anything." Gray said as he looked back at Natsu.

"But after that Juvia was constantly either sick or on vacation." Natsu said.

"That's right!" Lucy said. "And Gray was taking double the normal amount of missions."

Juvia just stared down into her lap. She couldn't bare to look up, not at Natsu or Lucy and especially not Gray.

"But I never thought that you guys would do something like that without getting married." Natsu admitted, he thought it was so out of character for both of them.

Gray reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden ring and placed it on the table. Juvia looked up and saw the ring and figured that she was supped to pull out her ring. Juvia reached into her bag and pulled out a beautiful diamond ring. It gave Lucy's ring a run for its money.

"Why didn't you tell anyone!" Lucy exclaimed. She was confused and kind of upset that she never got invited to their wedding.

"We didn't want to say anything because the day we got eloped we were super drunk. It wasn't our plan to get eloped or for Juvia to get..." Gray paused and lowered his voice. "Pregnant."

"Wait, so are you guys still married?" Lucy asked. It'd be weird for them to have been married this whole time and not have even tried to be in a relationship.

"Well Gray-sama and Juvia agreed to get divorced since they were too drunk to think straight." Juvia said as she fiddled around with the expensive ring.

"You guys both agreed to get divorced?" Natsu asked, not seeing how that would happen.

"Since Gray-sama didn't want to get married and didn't share Juvia's feelings Juvia agreed to get divorced." Juvia said as she continued to play with her ring.

"I'm sure that's the reason..." Natsu stared at Gray, who was fidgeting in his seat and looked rather nervous.

"What does Natsu-San mean?" Juvia asked, raising a brow at Natsu's comment.

Gray looked up and Natsu and had a pleading look in his eyes. Natsu just smirked and turned to face Juvia. "I would beg to differ about Gray's feelings back then."

Gray just put his face in his hands as his face started to go red. Juvia paid no attention to it though and continued to discus with Natsu. "What does Natsu-San mean?"

Natsu smirked. "Around that time Gray had developed a crush on someone, and not just a little crush, he was full out crushing on them." Natsu looked at Juvia with a hinting expression.

Juvia didn't get it at first but when she did she faced Gray and had a confused look on her face. "So Gray-sama lied about his feelings after they got married?"

Gray still had his face in his hands. "Maybe..." He mumbled.

"Gray-sama..." Juvia said in an accusing tone as to make him tell the truth. He hated it when she did that because it always worked.

Gray pulled his face out of his hands and took a deep breath. "Yes..." Juvia gasped in hurt and disbelief. "But I thought it was just a crush, I didn't think that I was ready for any commitment!" Gray pleaded his defense as he held onto Juvia's hand.

Juvia just sat there in silence as she thought over everything. She didn't expect Gray to say anything but he kept talking. "I didn't know I was in love with you until I didn't have you anymore. Taking all those missions without you was killing me and the reason I kept going was because I knew I'd come back to see you and that I had to support both of us."

Juvia's eyes widened and finally spoke. "Gray-sama loves Juvia?" Gray's eyes also widened when he realized his mistake, his slip up.

"Aw snap Gray..." Natsu teased.

"I uh..." Gray didn't see any point in lying anymore. "Yeah, I love you." Gray's hold on Juvia's hand tightened when he said it.

Juvia shrieked quietly and was full of delight. "Juvia loves Gray-sama too!" Juvia said as she practically jumped on him.

"Eh!" Gray almost forgot how forward Juvia was about being affectionate towards him. He wasn't expecting Juvia to kiss him though. He was 27 now and he couldn't help but feel relieve that he could let all of that off his chest.

"Yeah, yeah, get a room." Natsu teased as he looked away from them. Gray and Juvia both blushed as they sat back up.

"But what about Storm, what happened after he was born?" Lucy asked, still confused on what was going on with that situation.

"Juvia and Gray-sama gave him to a foster home, Gray-sama said that they were a lovely family and that he took care of everything." Juvia said as she looked over at Storm, who was running around with Asuka and Mira.

"Yeah, I uh... took care of that situation." Gray said hesitantly as Natsu gave him a weird look. Natsu was suspicious of Gray. He knew him almost his whole life and something seemed off.

"What was the family's name?" Natsu asked as he squinted his eyes at Gray.

"Uh they were the..." Gray glared at Natsu before acting like he was trying to recall something. "The Fullstoms." Gray finally managed to say.

"That name sounds pretty weird. Sounds a bit like Fullbuster." Natsu said accusingly as Gray glared at Natsu. "And if I recall, you were still taking lots of 'jobs' and vacations after Juvia was back to normal."

"What are you getting at..." Gray said through gritted teeth. He hated the fact that Natsu could see right through him. Gray didn't even notice that Juvia was staring at Gray with a concerned look on her face.

"Well if I didn't know better if say that-" Natsu had a smug look on his face as Lucy practically jumped out of her seat and cut him off.

"You kept Storm!" Lucy almost shouted out. Juvia was in shock and confusion as Natsu started to fight with Lucy about interrupting him.

Gray tried to avoid looking at Juvia, but he had to look. When he did Juvia's brows were furrowed and she looked almost hurt. "Gray-sama kept Storm and raise him by himself?"

Gray bit his lip as he debated what to say. "Yes, but I couldn't give him up."

"Does Gray-sama know how hard it was for Juvia to give up their baby?" Juvia was hurt and she couldn't believe what Gray had done.

"You don't get it, when I was going to visit the foster family he held my finger. When his little hand gripped mine, I lost it. I couldn't think of giving him up. I already gave you up and that was the biggest regret of my life." Gray's eyes glossed over as he tried to hold back tears. "He was all I had left, you have to understand that."

"And does Gray-sama understand that Juvia had nothing? Juvia didn't have Gray-sama, her baby, nothing." Gray froze as the realization hit him. How could he have been so stupid as to have not realized that.

"Listen Juvia I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking clearly." Gray said as he went to grab Juvia's hand, but Juvua pulled her hand away. She stood up and walked away. "Juvia!" Gray called out. Juvia kept walking, she couldn't bare to look back. "Juvia!" Gray called again as he stood up and followed after her.

Juvia turned around the corner of the outside of the guild right before Gray grabbed her shoulder. "Juvia, please-"

"What Gray!" Juvia said as she turned around, her faces covered in tears. Gray's heart shattered a little knowing that he had made Juvia cry.

"I... I'm sorry." Gray stared at the ground before looking at Juvia. "And you have every reason to hate me right now, but I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Please, I love you, I can't lose you again..." Gray closed his eyes and tears started to stream down his face as the thought of Juvia leaving him ran through his head.

"Juvia is sorry, but Juvia needs time alone. Juvia thinks that Gray-sama needs sometime to think about everything also. If Gray-sama cannot promise to commit fully then Juvia doesn't want to bother with it." Juvia said as she shrugged Gray's hand off of her shoulder. She walked away from Gray, leaving him there by himself.

Gray collapsed to his knees as he continued to cry. "Why am I such an idiot..." He couldn't bare the thought of losing Juvia again. Just when things seemed like they couldn't be any worse it started to rain, heavily.

"You think they're gonna be ok?" Natsu asked Lucy. It was twenty minutes after Gray and Juvia had left the guild and they hadn't heard anything.

"They have to, it's Gray and Juvia." Lucy reassured Natsu. The truth though was that she was also reassuring herself.

A soaked Gray walked back into the guild. His eyes were blank and his shoulders were slumped over. For once Gray had all of his clothes on and as he walked past Natsu and Lucy Natsu spoke up. "Listen Gray-"

"Shut it Natsu." Gray said bitterly as he kept walking. Natsu got up and grabbed Gray by the shoulder, turning him around.

"Gray, everything is going to be fine. I'm sure-" Natsu was trying to reassure Gray but he cut him off again.

"Yeah everything is going to be great now that the love of my life hates me, no thanks to you." Gray just looked away from Natsu as he spoke.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you decided to lie to her for the last eight years!" Natsu's tone started to escalate.

"Natsu, don't." Lucy said but Natsu was done with it.

"No, he needs to hear it." Natsu looked right at Gray. "If you had just gotten over your commitment issues and talked with Juvia you wouldn't be in this mess. If you had-"

"Shut up..." Gray said quietly.

"Excuse me?" Natsu raised a brow at Gray.

"I said shut up!" Gray looked right back at Natsu. "Do you know what I've been through in the last couple of years? Do you know what it's like to lose the person who's closest to you? Do you know how hard it is to act like everything is fine, even though you feel like there's nothing left in the world?"

"Yeah I do know what that's like, I lost Igneel. He was my whole world..." Natsu said as he started to look slightly depressed thinking about it.

"Yeah well you should try being me. I lost my dad and my mom, they were my whole world. Then I lost Ur, she was everything I saw as good in the world after I was blinded by revenge. And now I've lost Juvia, for the second time. I've lost the sunshine in my dark, cold, endless space." Gray's eyes started to tear up. "So try knowing what that's like. It's the worst, it feels like someone's ripped out my heart and then slowly started to rip apart everything dear to me, right in front of my eyes."

Natsu didn't know what to say, he never thought about it like that. He was introduced to a new side of Gray that he never showed before. Gray was never one to be very expressive or open to anyone, but something in him broke. "Now if you don't mind I'm going to go get my son."

Gray walked over to Storm and picked him up. "Where are we going Gray?" Storm asked as he looked up at Gray.

"You don't have to call me Gray anymore Storm. You can call me dad again." Gray said as he walked out of Fairy Tail and held his son close.