A Lapse of Memory
Chapter 1

by Contrail

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima, and is being used without permission. No profit is being made from this story.

It was a quiet, peaceful evening at the Fairy Tail guild. A little too quiet and peaceful for Gray's tastes, to be honest. Erza had left on a job that specifically called for one person only yesterday, and Natsu had decided to go on a different job himself, taking Happy and Lucy along with him. Lucy had asked him if he wanted to go along as well, but the job didn't pay well enough to make it worth it to put up with Natsu. He hadn't seen any missions on the board that he was interested in that he could take on solo, though, so he'd decided to wait until Juvia returned from her current job to see if she'd like to join him for one of the more interesting jobs.

It was kind of funny, how over time Juvia had become his go-to partner whenever he wasn't working by himself or with Natsu and the others, but they worked really well together. Their fight against Lyon and Chelia in the Grand Magic Games was perhaps the strongest example of that. But Mirajane hadn't been sure how long Juvia's mission was going to take, so he was stuck waiting around the guild until she got back. (And the way that Mirajane had looked at him and said "Of course," when he explained why he'd wanted to know when Juvia would be back had irked him a bit. It was like she hadn't believed he was telling the truth about why he was asking. Which he was.) He couldn't even pick a fight with Natsu to relieve his boredom, since he wasn't here.

Movement near the door caught his attention, breaking him out of his thoughts, and he turned to look in time to see Juvia entering the guild. His mood brightened a bit upon seeing her, since it meant that with any luck he'd soon be choosing a mission to go on with her, but it didn't take him long to spot that something was off with her. There was an unusually somber air about her, and she seemed to be preoccupied by something, enough so that she wasn't looking around for him so she could greet him like she usually did. Gray frowned. Had something gone wrong on her mission? When it became clear that Juvia was just going to walk past him on her way through the guild, he decided to call out to her. Maybe he could help her with whatever was wrong. "Oi, Juvia!"

She turned to face him, and what he saw in her expression made a queasy feeling start to grow in his stomach. Her eyes held not even a hint of the warmth with which she usually looked at him, holding only confusion. But it was what she said next that made him feel like someone had plunged their hand into his chest and squeezed his heart in their fist. "Why did you call for Juvia? Juvia doesn't know you."

Gray just sat there gaping at her, too shocked by her words to even form a response. She… she wasn't playing some sort of prank on him, was she? No, she appeared to be sincere in her puzzlement. But then why…? After waiting for a long moment for him to say anything, she continued, "Are you new to the guild? Juvia doesn't remember seeing you around here before." He still couldn't figure out what to say, many questions spinning through his thoughts but none of them staying long enough to be voiced. After a few more seconds, she turned and started walking away. "Juvia is sorry, but she needs to go talk to the Master about her last mission. She will talk to you later if you want," she called back to him over her shoulder.

He could only watch as she made her way to the Master's office and went inside. Once he could no longer see her, Gray took a deep breath and started to try to gather his thoughts into some semblance of order, ignoring the surprised murmuring of those who'd been close enough to them to witness the exchange between the two of them. Juvia seemed to have forgotten him, but might or might not have forgotten anything else. She definitely remembered Fairy Tail in general, though, from the way she was acting. She didn't have any obvious injuries, either, so that combined with the apparent specificity of her amnesia made some form of magic the most likely source of Juvia's amnesia. He wished he knew more about the mission she'd been on so he had more to go on in trying to figure out what had happened to her.

Several minutes of worrying on Gray's part later, Juvia left the Master's office and made her way over to the doors and out, presumably heading home. As she was leaving, Makarov sought out Levy and Gajeel where they were sitting together at one of the guild's tables. After a brief conversation between the three, they both got up and left, Levy heading towards the Guild's library and Gajeel leaving the Guild, presumably intending to go after Juvia. Not reassured at all by these events, Gray left his seat and intercepted Makarov before he could return to his office. "Gramps… What happened to Juvia on her last mission?" he asked.

Makarov looked up at Gray with a serious expression. "You noticed that something wasn't right with her, then."

Gray crossed his arms over his chest uneasily, turning his head so he wouldn't have to meet the old man's eyes. "She… She didn't recognize me when she came into the guild just now."

Makarov nodded thoughtfully in response, then began to explain the situation. "Juvia's mission was to capture a mage who uses memory affecting magic. She was successful, but not before the mage made her forget what she cared about most."

It didn't take Gray long to put that together with what had happened earlier and come to a conclusion. So, he was what Juvia cared about the most…? He knew she loved him, but to know without a doubt he really mattered that much to her… He couldn't quite place a label on what that made him feel, but it definitely made him feel something. And now he'd been completely wiped from her memories. What if… "Juvia's memory… It can be fixed, right? She won't-" Gray cut himself off, hating how anxious his voice sounded.

"Most likely it can be. This kind of magic isn't used all that often, so I don't know much about it, but I doubt that it's something completely irreversible." Makarov reached out and laid a comforting hand on Gray's arm. "I asked Levy to dig up anything she can find in our library about this, and I'll have Porlyusica examine her tomorrow to see if there's anything she can do to help Juvia. We'll do everything we can to restore her memory."

Gray was eased enough by those words to manage to a small half-smile. "Good."

After patting his arm, Makarov started to head back into his office, only to pause for a moment. "Oh. Gray?"

"Yeah?"

"Please put your shirt back on."

Looking down, he could see that he really wasn't wearing his shirt. Sighing, he headed back to where he'd been sitting, keeping an eye out for his shirt. Finding it lying on the table he'd been sitting at, he quickly put it back on. Deciding that there wasn't much point to sticking around the guild further, he started heading back to his apartment. As he walked, enjoying the feel of the cool night air, he started wondering why he'd reacted so strongly to Juvia forgetting about him. It's not like she'd been seriously hurt, right?

But still, the thought of her forgetting him and all the memories they'd shared together, from their fight when they first met, through meeting her again and the events that had followed involving the Tower of Heaven, her joining Fairy Tail, missions they'd gone on together, Tenrou Island, even winning the Grand Magic Games and what had happened after… It made his heart ache. Gray had known Juvia for only a bit over a year, but in that time they had become… close. As close or closer in some ways as those he'd grown up with in Fairy Tail. So it would hurt him the same way if Erza or Natsu had forgotten him, right?

And Juvia… As much as he was annoyed by her more over-the-top gestures of affection, she'd liked him for pretty much as long as he'd known her. A Juvia that didn't look at him with special affection in her eyes, well… It was just really strange to even contemplate, let alone think about trying to deal with. Finally reaching the building he lived in, he sighed to himself. Maybe if he was lucky, he'd go to bed and when he woke this would all just be some crazy dream.

Next Chapter: We see how Juvia is dealing with having lost some of her memories.

This story will be updating on Mondays until it's finished. (These were supposed to go up yesterday, but I forgot to. Oops!) All of the chapters have been written already, so you don't have to worry about it not being finished. ;^)

Please review and let me know what you think!