A Lapse of Memory
Chapter 2
by Contrail

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

Once outside of the guild, Juvia started walking towards Fairy Hills at an unhurried pace, somewhat lost in thought. She wished she'd been able to tell the Master just what Lethe had made her forget with her last spell, but unfortunately that wasn't something she'd managed to puzzle out yet. Whenever she tried to pin down just what had been blocked from her memories, it slipped away from her, like trying to reach out and grasp fog with your hands. If anything, with her magic she'd have better luck with the fog! It was quite frustrating, particularly since anything connected to what she'd been made to forget felt a little hazy, which included most of her memories since joining Fairy Tail. What could she have forgotten that would have been so influential in her life?

"Oi, Puddle!"

Juvia stopped walking and turned to look back in response to a familiar voice calling out to her. With a smile, she replied, "Gajeel-kun. Why are you following Juvia?"

Gajeel shrugged. "Master wanted me to make sure you were okay."

She nodded and started back towards the dorms, Gajeel falling into step beside her with the ease of long familiarity. After they walked in companionable silence for a short while, he asked, "So how are ya holding up?"

"Juvia is frustrated about not being able to figure out what she was made to forget, and not knowing how or when she'll be able to restore her memories, but otherwise she is all right," she responded.

He nodded, a somewhat uneasy look on his face. After a moment, he started speaking, sounding a bit like he was having trouble getting the words out. "Do you remember… being in love with someone?"

She just stopped and stared at Gajeel for a moment, before shaking herself a little and putting her feet back into motion. For him to bring up such a topic of his own accord was very strange. She'd had to go through so much trouble to get him to even admit that he had more than friendly feelings for Levy-san…! And while it made sense that if she'd had such feelings for someone that they might have been what she was made to forget, it was still weird that Gajeel would have thought of it.

Still looking uncomfortable and embarrassed, but determined to hear her answer all the same, Gajeel prompted, "Well…?"

She shook her head, her lips curving up into a small, sad smile. "No, Juvia doesn't feel that way for anyone, nor has she ever that she can recall. She guesses you've just been luckier than she has in that regard, Gajeel-kun." Bora certainly didn't qualify, no matter what she'd thought at the time.

He sighed, not seeming particularly surprised by her answer. "I should've figured it would turn out to be the stripper that you forgot."

Juvia frowned, her confusion evident on her face. "Stripper? What are you talking about?" Did he mean that there really was someone she…?

Gajeel sighed again, still looking uncomfortable with the subject of their conversation, then plowed onwards. "There's a guy you… like. Liked. Whatever. A member of the guild."

"Oh." But when she thought about the members of the guild, she couldn't think of anyone that she could possibly feel that way about, nor did it feel like there was anyone should be part of the guild that she wasn't remembering. Although… "Tonight… The one who called out to Juvia. Was he…?"

"Yeah, that was him," Gajeel replied with a wry expression. "His name's Gray Fullbuster."

"I see." The two of them walked in silence for a couple of minutes, letting Juvia digest the information she'd just learned. She now had some idea of just what she was forgetting, but knowing that had just given her more questions to think about. Finally she broke the silence a bit hesitantly, asking, "Do you know… why it was that Juvia liked him?" She'd noticed how handsome he was when they'd spoken at the guild earlier, but surely there had to have been more to her feelings about him than that…

"Tch. Like I ever paid that much attention to what you were saying when you went on and on about him," he scoffed at first, but then his expression took a more serious turn. "I wasn't there when it happened, so I don't know exactly how he managed to do it, but you told me that he was the one who took away the rain that followed you."

Juvia's eyes widened and one of her hands flew up to press against her chest, right above her heart. She'd been haunted by that rain for years before it went away. If he'd been able to rid her of it, even accidentally, then she wasn't surprised that she'd ended up falling for him. She tried to dredge up even a little bit of what had happened back then, but all she managed to get was a flash of blue sky, the first time she'd ever seen it. "Juvia hates not being able to remember any of this," she said, squeezing her eyes shut in an attempt to keep tears of frustration at bay.

Gajeel reached over and awkwardly patted her on her shoulder. "We'll find a way to fix what that bitch did to you. So there's no reason to cry about it."

She directed a grateful, if slightly watery, smile at Gajeel, appreciating his attempt to comfort her despite its awkward nature. "Thanks, Gajeel-kun."

He nodded briefly in acknowledgement and kept walking. It wasn't much longer until the pair reached the gate for Fairy Hills. "I should be fine from here. Thank you for walking and talking with me, and I'll see you at the guild tomorrow."

She started to head up the path to the dorm but halted in her tracks in response to Gajeel's voice. "Wait. Before you head up there, there's something you should know." She turned back towards him, a puzzled expression on her face. "Gray… Well, you were pretty crazy about him before. So in your room there's going to be some weird stuff that you don't remember."

"Crazy? Weird stuff?" she questioned while starting to get a sinking feeling about what Gajeel's statement implied.

"Yeah, you kinda fawned all over him. And you've got dolls of him and shit." Noticing how embarrassed Juvia was starting to look, he continued, "Sorry, I only brought it up because I thought it'd be better if you knew about it before you found it all in your room."

She just waved off his apology. "It's okay. Juvia would've found out about it sooner or later. It's not like this is the first time Juvia's done foolish things over a guy." She couldn't help the regretful tone that crept into her voice for the last sentence.

"How many times have I told you not to blame yourself for what happened with that asshole?" he scolded her gently.

"Sorry, Gajeel-kun." She looked over towards the building. "I should head inside. Thank you for the warning, and good night."

"'Night."

She gave Gajeel one last smile before heading into Fairy Hills and up to her room. Standing in front of her door, she can't help but feel a little nervous about what she was going to find inside. If Gajeel had thought it was odd enough to be worth warning about… Well, that definitely said something. Still, staring at her own door wasn't going to change anything, so she pushed those feelings aside and made her way into her room. Looking around after closing the door behind her, at first she didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then she glanced towards the door that lead to her shower and her jaw dropped.

Ensconced in some cabinets was a very large number of dolls and other items, all bearing the likeness the mage that she could only remember having met earlier that evening. In addition to plush dolls of different sizes, there were mugs, pillows, fans, darumas, pictures of him… Feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all, Juvia made her way over to her bed and sat down. She… She'd probably made a complete fool of herself over him, hadn't she? And yet, she couldn't help but wonder what it had felt like, to love someone so much that she'd wanted to amass such a collection.

Once again, she found herself wishing that she could just remember, or even that she'd kept a journal. But that was something that she'd never gotten into the habit of doing, probably because it wouldn't have been safe for her to write down her thoughts where the other kids at the orphanage could find them… Still, sitting there wishing for things to be different wasn't going to get her anywhere. She'd just have to deal with the strangeness as best as she could until a way was found to restore her memory. Tomorrow, she could box up her… collection, and put it somewhere she wouldn't have to look at it. And, well, it wouldn't hurt to try to get to know Gray again, would it?

Juvia got ready for bed, feeling as prepared as she could be for what tomorrow would hold. The last thought she had before she fell asleep was to wonder why Gajeel had referred to Gray as a stripper the first time he had mentioned him.

Next Chapter: Time passes, and Gray has a couple of tense conversations.

Thank you, everyone who reviewed and/or followed this story! I hope you all continue enjoying it. :^)