Prompt: Don't ask me that.

"These people," Mira decided, "are idiots." She looked around at her guild mates, completely flabbergasted at their obliviousness. It was obvious who liked who, to her anyways, and she felt somewhat ridiculous as she tried to explain to the group sitting at the bar why they were wrong without giving away people's private lives.

As much as she liked to gossip, there were lines you just didn't cross.

"Gray-sama loves Juvia," the bluenette said confidently, "He's just shy around her." Juvia, along with most of the rest of the girls in the guild, was sitting at a table near the bar and chatting about "Gray-sama."

Mire cringed, "If only you knew." The oldest of the Strauss siblings swore up and down that most everyone in this guild was already in a relationship and just hiding it, "Not to mention that 'your' Gray is most definitely homosexual and dating a certain pinkette." The two of them were sneaky, but not sneaky enough. She'd caught them holding hands under the table too many times for it not to be true.

She gave out another round of milkshakes for them as she tried not to throw in her own comments and give people away.

Her sister didn't have the same thoughts, "I wouldn't be so sure..." She uttered.

Juvia shot a glare her way, and Mira winced in sympathy. Juvia could be terrifying.

"Why wouldn't Gray love Juvia?" She hissed.

Lisanna put her hand on the water mage's shoulder, "For the same reason Natsu didn't love me when were kids." The group of female mages were watching silently, unsure of where this was going.

"She's not going to out them is she?," Mira wondered.

Mira moved closer to stop Lisanna if she had to, but froze at the younger's words, "What you feel is the same thing I felt, and it's not love." Juvia looked like she was going to protest, but Lisanna shook her head, "It's obsession." She moved her had off of Juvia's shoulder and grabbed the vanilla shake Mira was holding out to her.

The long haired bartender shook her head, "Why was I even worried? She probably never figured that out."

Gajeel, who had been listening to the entire conversation, was desperate to pretend like he hadn't. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Juvia's whining. He'd told her it wasn't going to happen, and watching her get told the same thing from someone else was bound to either send her into tears or make her want to spar.

He wasn't willing to make that gamble.

"It's not an obsession," Juvia hissed.

"Don't do it."

"Yes it is, Juvia. Don't do the same thing I did. It'll break you."

"It's not an obsession. Juvia loves Gray-sama."

"You'll regret it later."

"She's right you know," Lucy mumbled.

"Shut-up love rival! You just want Gray-sama to yourse-"

"Fuck it," Gajeel said aloud. Several heads whipped towards him as he made his way over to the gaggle of girls, "You have literally stitched dolls of the ice-bastard, you have photographs that he doesn't know you've taken of him, you steal his clothing, and who knows what else. If you were a boy, and him a girl, you'd be arrested for being a stalker, Juvia." The water mage had become teary-eyed, and Gajeel almost stopped himself. She opened her mouth to protest, but he clamped his hand down over her mouth. "No, Juv. You don't love him. It's an obsession from the fact that he helped you. It's just a stronger version of what you did to me when we first met, and if calling you out in front of the entire guild is what I have to do to get that through your skull, then so be it. I'll be the bad guy again."

He moved his hand and immediately wished he hadn't. A sharp wail instantly pierce the air, and the three slayers in the guild recoiled. Freed acted quickly, and placed runes around both Laxus and Wendy, not bothering with the retreating iron dragon slayer.

"Instant head-aches are the worst."

He shoved the doors open and nearly hit Erza in the face. He mumbled a quick, "Sorry," before shoving past her. As expected, Natsu and Gray weren't too far behind, "Hey, Salamander, don't go in there." Natsu was covering his ears, and Gray was watching him blankly "Actually, you shouldn't either." He directed at Gray. He walked past them, not caring whether they headed his warning.

"I need a nap."

"I know he had to say all that to Juvia, but did he really have to be so cruel about it?" The pinkette hadn't heard the whole conversation, just the end of it, but even he knew that Gajeel's phrasing was a little harsh. "Or maybe it's just the fact that I'm rally good at picking up on emotions. Isn't there a word for that? It was like 'imputh' or something. I know in Dravic it's 'one who feels everything' if you translate it, but I swear there's a Fiori word for it..." He let his thoughts run rampant as he turned to leave.

"Oi, flame-brain," Gray reached for his arm and yanked him backwards, "Did you forget that we're sparing?"

Natsu shook his head, "No, but we can continue elsewhere. Juvia's crying is obnoxious."

"Juvia's... Crying? Is that why Gajeel told us not to go in?" The ice mage scoffed, "I'm perfectly capable of handling myself."

"You and I both know that you don't want to deal with her," Natsu commented, but it was too late. Juvia had opened up the guild doors and was staring at the two of them.

"Shit. She heard that didn't she?" Natsu may not have been the biggest fan of Juvia, especially since she was constantly attaching herself to his boyfriend, but that didn't mean that he wanted to hurt her.

"They were right," Juvia muttered, "Gray-sama doesn't love Juvia, does he?"

Gray froze, and now everyone in the guild was staring at the two of them. Natsu could hear several of the girls muttering about how romantic it would be if Gray stopped her from crying, and it took a lot of willpower not to growl.

"Mine."

"Juvia..." Gray whispered, and several of the girls squealed.

This time Natsu did growl. It was quiet, and he stopped it fairly quick, but it still happened.

"Does Gray-sama love Juvia?" The rain woman was looked absolutely hear-broken, and Gray realized that there wasn't any more putting this off.

"Don't ask me that unless you want an long, honest answer," He said firmly. When she nodded hopefully, Gray sighed.

"I guess now's a better time than any." They'd been a thing for a long time, but considering human customs, Natsu hastily agreed to Gray's idea of keeping it secret.

"Juvia, there is more than one kind of love," He started, "I love you like a gild-mate, like a friend, and like a creepy-obsessive-stalker-like-little-sister, but I can't love you like a lover."

Juvia's crying was a lot more subdued this time, and she had sank to her knees, "But Gray-sama-"

Gray cut her off again, "I promise you it has nothing to do with ridiculous things like how pretty you are or how intelligent, because I'll be one of the first to admit that you're beautiful, both literally and as a person. Love isn't something that you can force, nor is it the picture perfect thing that everyone thinks it is." He bent down and pulled her face in his shoulder. Several people cooed, and a few applauded the ice mage, Natsu being one of them.

"That was adorable" Natsu thought, "And he didn't out us! Hell yeah! No one will immediately assume we're fucking the moment we're alone! Because that's gross,"Natsu ace-self was not about to be accused of such a thing. "Or homophobes. How did I forget that? Homophobes suck."

It took a long while for the guild to calm down after what happened earlier, but it did eventually. Most everyone was crowded around team Natsu's usual table, asking about the mission. The few who were still asking about Juvia were ignored for the most part, but one question didn't go unnoticed by their noisy guild mates.

"Is the part of reason that Gray-sama, er," Juvia paused, "Gray-san, doesn't love Juvia because he loves someone else?" Under normal circumstances, he'd have completely ignored the question, but it had caught him so off guard that he chocked on his water. Everyone had caught on to his slip up, and Gray was mentally cussing himself out.

"There goes hiding it." He threw a side glance to Natsu, who was on the other side of the room eating, and steeled himself for what was to come, "Yes." Gray felt his face go completely scarlet, and he didn't even bother trying to hide it. Several of the girls squealed, and Elfman shouted something about real men admitting their love.

Instantly people began prodding him, asking him about who it was. Most of them were now frozen in place. "Their own fault."

When Gray looked up, he found Erza glaring at him, "Unfreeze them Gray." Needless to say, he complied fairly quickly. "I will only ask three questions. You don have to answer them, but I appreciate it." She had gone into protective big sister mode, and Gray figured that if he didn't answer these in front of the guild, then he have to later. He sighed, still red in the face, and nodded. "Do I know them, are they a good person, and do you really love them or is it a crush."

"Of course she'd ask those questions."

"Yes, no shit, and," Gray paused, thinking about what he was getting ready to say, and deciding to go all out with it. He leaned forward to look directly into his older sister figure's eyes. "I've never had so much as a crush on anyone else."

"So Gray-san does love someone else," Juvia stated. Gray expected her to be upset at that fact, but when he saw her face, she had a ridiculous grin slapped across it,"If Juvia can't have Gray-san, then just means that Juvia has to help Gray-san get the person he loves, so tell Juvia who it is?" Gray gave her a blank look, and Juvia almost wondered if she gone too far again.

"He already knows," Gray blurted, and he realized his mistake the second it came out. His face got redder, and his stance became defensive.

Juvia tilted her head, "If he already knows then why haven't you told anyone?" She asked.

"Juvia completely ignored the fact I said he. Actually, everyone did."

When Gray didn't answer, Erza decided to take the initiative, "You realize that we couldn't care less about that right? So what, you like a guy. I've dated girls before, and I know for a fact that you're not the only gay in the guild. Besides, it shouldn't matter who loves who anyways." She smacked the top of his head, huffing in annoyance, as he rubbed his head, "Now that that's out of the way, I have to reiterate Juvia's question. Why didn't you tell us, without the obvious."

"Do you all remember what I said earlier?"Gray asked. He received several nods. "Love is never what you expect it to be, and considering the relationship between the two of us is very different to the usual depiction, we didn't think you understand it. He's also a lot more secretive than he likes to admit, so I don want to accidentally talk about something that only I know about." Gray had partially zoned out with a smile on his face, but in an instant his features turned possessive, "He's also abso-fucking-lutely adorable and mine and I'm not sharing that."

Mira's voice cut through the noise of the crowd, ¨I think you broke your boyfriend, Gray." Everyone whipped around.

At the bar, Natsu's face was burred in his scarf, but you could still see that it was redder than Gray's, "Asshole," He blurted as he flipped Gray off without bothering to look.

"Love you, Pyro," Gray responded.

"Love you, too, Snowflake," Natsu muttered.

"So that's what Gray-san meant by 'different'."

Gajeel and Wendy didn't look surprised, and the bleunette even threw in a "called it." The lager of the two cleared a small hole in the crowd, and Gray, who'd quickly put together what he was doing, bolted through it and grabbed onto Natsu's arm, "Run," He whispered questioningly.

Natsu nodded, "Run." He slid his arm so as to hold Gray's hand, pulling him along, and before the crowd could catch up to them, they were out the guild's backdoor. "They are going to kill us later," Natsu shouted over the wind. Gray just shook his head and laughed, "Yeah, I don't care either."

Gray watched the pinkette as the ran rather than where they were going, smiling at the energetic fucker he called his. Yeah, they were different, but different isn't always a bad thing. Their uniqueness made their relationship irreplaceable, and Gray would be more than happy to put up with it for the rest of his life.

"When Erza murders us for not telling her, at least I'll have died protecting something precious."

Words: 2349

Hi guys! I was originally going to wait until tomorrow to post this, but I decided I'd suffer through writing the last few sentences on my shit computer for you guys tonight. Enjoy it, because this is another one that gave me a lot of trouble. ( In case you haven't noticed, I either come up with plots too complex to deal with in a single one-shot, or it has to be sad, and my fluff-loving ass doesn't want to write a story that's nothing but sad.)

As always:

Constructive criticism is always welcome, and if you find a typo, don't hesitate to point it out!

Reviews/comments are my 90% motivation.

Love you guys,

-Jinx