Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima

Title: Interlude

Prompt: Sweet

Rating: G

Word Count: 1,409

A/N: I took a bit of a leap from the prompt this time and took the setting from the song "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet. See if you can catch all the allusions!

Gray hadn't been sleeping well. Every night for nearly a month, he'd had the weirdest dreams. And they all had to do with Juvia. Going fishing with Juvia, running through fields with Juvia, Juvia wearing a white dress, Juvia a lot fatter than usual, Juvia baking, Juvia, Juvia, Juvia. And then some nights, it was Juvia in a pool of blood, Juvia screaming in pain. He was starting to wonder if the girl was completely blameless in this. After all, every morning, her reaction to seeing him was the opposite of two extremes. She either completely avoided his gaze for the first hour or so in his presence, or was even clingier than usual. She was running hot and cold and he didn't know what to make of it. Each morning was more and more uncomfortable as he grew more and more confused. He was used to knowing what to expect from Juvia and between his nightly visions and her odd behaviour, he was at a complete loss. Gray didn't like it and on the brink of confronting her about it.

It was a typical Saturday evening at the guild. Mirajane was performing and Gajeel was not happy about it. He was pouting at a table in the back and Levy and Pantherlily both seemed to be doing their level best to comfort him. It wasn't working. Mira was in the middle of a soothing ballad when he jumped to his feet and yelled "Oi, Mira! Let someone else have a turn already!" The aforementioned Mira went right on playing, thoroughly used to catcalls in general at this particular venue, and especially catcalls from Gajeel.

Evergreen was not so passive. From the Raijinshuu's table in the corner came a resounding "No one wants to hear fro you, so sit down and shut up, Redfox. Or are you looking to start a fight you won't be able to finish?"

Apparently, he was.

The two were soon embroiled in a heated battle, hurling insults and furniture across the hall. Laxus pointedly ignored the debris flying just over his head, keeping his eyes trained to the stage and wearing a glare that clearly said "I came to have a relaxing evening and I'll be damned if I let these idiots ruin it for me." But a man only has so much patience. When Gray noticed the air surrounding Laxus was crackling, he realised that nothing good was in the works for tonight. Usually he'd be up for a fight himself, but tonight he had other things on his mind and, odd as it was, he found he didn't welcome the distraction. He found Juvia sitting a little too near to the mini electrical storm for comfort. Her body was a conduit for Laxus' magic and Gray would rather she not get caught in the cross-hairs. She was close enough to Gajeel that she might jump in to defend him. And he didn't want that. After all, there were some things he needed to say to her.

He walked over to stand behind her and reached out to grab her shoulder. He caught himself in time to decide against it. That would be encouraging her and he could not get involved like she wanted. With anyone. So instead, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Juvia, we need to talk. Meet me in the broom closet." He immediately headed for their rendezvous point without bothering to make sure she was following. He knew she would.

He hadn't known she would arrive at the closet fully liquefied. Apparently, he had given her "ideas." If he'd bothered to check over his shoulder, he would have noticed her slow transformation from normal girl, to jelly-legs, to dripping in what could have been sweat, to Frosty the Snowman after the sun had come out.

Gray rubbed his temples. This might be even harder than he'd thought. "Juvia, I can't talk to you like that. I don't know where your face is. Pull yourself together."

A head of blue hair slowly emerged from the puddle, followed by big blue eyes. Then came a flawlessly straight nose and two lips that were saying, "Sorry, Gray-sama. Juvia got a little lost in her thoughts." Now fully reconstituted, Juvia stood with her hands clasped in front of her, leaning ever so slightly forward. "If Juvia may ask… why has Gray-sama invited her here?"

Time to nip any expectations in the bud and fast. "To talk. That's it. I just want to talk." He expected her face to fall, but instead it lit up.

"Talking alone with Gray-sama? Juvia would like that very much!"

Gray reached back to rub the back of his neck. "Uh… yeah. You see, I've been having some… some pretty weird dreams…"

"Dreams? What kind of dreams? Are they…" Juvia gasped "erotic dreams?!"

She brought her hands up to her face and her eyes began to glaze over. Gray knew he had to act fast.

"No! No, not at all. I'm only mentioning it because you've sort of been in them." His brain couldn't keep up to his tongue.

"Erotic dreams about Juvia?!" She squeaked. Gray had not acted fast enough and she was lost to her daydreams.

Gray played a quick game of Solitaire with some ice-cards while her waited for her fantasy to play out.

He only rewarded her with his attention when she was primly sitting on an upturned bucket, hands folded in her lap.

Clearing his throat, he tried again. Speaking slowly so there could be no miscommunication. "They were not those kind of dreams. I was just wondering, since it started the night we got back from the last mission we did together… you didn't… you know… slip something into my drink…?"

Gray couldn't tell if she was offended or just hurt. "Juvia would never! She has not even thought of doing that for many, many, months now! And for Gray-sama's information, Juvia has been having dreams about him, too. Different ones than usual."

That put the situation in a different light. If Juvia had been affected too, it increased the chances that this was some sort of aftermath of their previous job. Other than the dreams, Gray was feeling fine. And Juvia looked like her normal self, if maybe a touch more drippy than usual. It was more serious than he'd thought though and now that he knew someone else was at risk, something had to be done.

"Some of those dreams are things I never want to see happen. Same for you?" Juvia nodded, eyes wide. "I have no idea what the extent of this is. If it was just me I wouldn't be so worried but this is really weird. You could've told me, you know, if you thought the dreams weren't normal. I mean, you're my nakama and some of those dreams… we shouldn't take any chances and I just…" He had to phrase this carefully.

The noise outside grew steadily louder. Nobody was allowing space to breathe, it was all taunts and attacks. Gray heard the music stop. Apparently Mira had given up on recaptivating her audience and slunk off stage. Oddly enough, instead of lowering the noise level, it only served to increase it as a chant rose up from Wakaba and Macao's table calling for her return.

Gray decided to go for it. Odds were, she'd mishear anyway and he could just breeze over it and continue with his suggestion for finding a solution.

"I don't want to lose you."

But just as he finished his thought, everything went quiet, leaving his words hanging completely naked in the air between them.

To his surprise, Juvia just blinked. "Of course Gray-sama does not want to lose Juvia. Even if he only sees her as nakama… for now!… Juvia knows that Gray-sama cares very much for his nakama. It is why Juvia loves him. It is why Juvia joined Fairy Tail."

"Oh." Gray felt that he'd underestimated Juvia in some way. "Well, as long as we understand each other…"

"Not that Juvia doesn't hope this means Gray-sama is more likely to love her soon!" She launched herself onto him, letting him struggle for twenty full seconds before letting go.

In a voice strangled by Juvia's affections, Gray said, "How about we head over to Porlyusica's tomorrow and see if she can't figure out what's going on."

"Excellent plan, Gray-sama! And in the meantime, perhaps we should sleep together, since we are both having the dreams!" Her eyes looked too hopeful for Gray's liking.

"No."

Gray and Juvia left the closet to find the guild full of stone statues (Gajeel in a particularly interesting pose) and the Raijinshuu unaccounted for.