A/N: It has been a while since I updated this story. I do honestly feel a bit bad about it, more so the fact I gave more attention to other story when I haven't finished this one first. Anyway, enjoy.
Train ride, no matter how long it actually was, seemed too short for Gray and every fiber in his body wanted it to last longer. For the largest part of the ride he would watch the countryside, motionless, with arm leaned against the window. He allowed relief to spread over his body and the giant rock that was pressing him hard against back has fallen… he could breathe again and in that moment he realized how tired he actually is. Restless days and strain of injury have finally caught up with him and he closed eyes for a moment but very soon his mind gave up and he fell asleep.
Images swirled around him and he watched them carefully, the dancing light and strange drops of water were heard as they splashed against floor that was both solid and liquid. A single drop fell right in front of him and entire floor melted and transformed, placing him right in the middle of scene he already saw… the dance at the reception, massive hall filled with people that moved in the rhythm of the music. He was dressed in same clothes that he wore and moved with ease among the couples… or rather, the other couples simply moved out of his way.
Gray looked around, eyes continuously searching for something or someone that he just couldn't find, as if it escaped from his sight. But alas, even in dream such things cannot remain hidden and he extended hand trying to place it on shoulder of another man and push him away but the man simply moved before hand could even be placed on his shoulder, and Gray gazed upon a peculiar sight.
There, right before his eyes he could see a couple dancing, girl dressed in dress, different than it was on the day of wedding. Dress was golden, gilded with blue threads on the edge of the dress and sparkling under the light while her partner held her close, keeping his gaze fixed upon her eyes. They moved with such ease and gracefulness that even the floor itself rippled under their feet. As couple moved Gray looked at the man… the image of Lyon cannot be mistaken but something odd was going on… he should be jealous, he should be angry, he should be rushing over to him but he isn't…
Gray smiled wide and as he smiled so did Lyon, he couldn't miss that smile, he couldn't mistake it for anyone else's because that is not him. It is your face, but that is not you, that is me… isn't it? I am dreaming, right? He said out loud and looked around then down at his feet, with slight tilt of the head the floor itself twisted. Yeah I am dreaming.
He looked again at the couple and the image changed, Juvia was still there, still beautiful as she was just a moment ago but the face of Lyon completely vanished and instead he was there. Gray watched himself and Juvia dance and a strange, crazy… unthinkable idea came to him… This is my dream, I can do whatever I want.
With that took deep breath and lifted his right arm then with two fingers he flicked at the couple as if casting some strange magic on them… and the couple stopped. Gray, that was with Juvia, moved his right hand and placed it under her chin, lifting up… He smiled wide at his little show and with another magical flip of fingers she smiled and moved closer to him… closer…
But as they were but a hair away from each other the room went dark and room distorted itself, everything suddenly started collapsing as he yelled No no no not now!
Gray opened eyes, slowly, noticing the same elderly couple across him. He cursed silently; he cursed the dream for ending so soon… Eyes wandered around as he tried to move his neck that became stiff from the uncomfortable position he was in right now but this action has met resistance and he realized that Juvia's head was still leaned on his shoulder, sleeping soundly.
For Juvia, it was just as difficult as it was for Gray, multiplied immensely with events that transpired, starting from watching Gray on bed struggling to keep life right up to the ball… Little did she know what happened during that event but one thing was clear to her. That thing is that no matter what, she was to be silent regarding her and Lyon… or at least whom she thought was Lyon. When she was alone in her room she scolded herself for allowing it to happen, still claiming with her heart that it should have been Gray instead of him… even with heavy words and broken bits of heart there was still undeniable fact that her love hasn't diminished, only her trust.
Indeed, time was heavy on her, pressure on both mind and heart beyond comprehension but this one day of them being forced to sit side by side, things have seemingly been cleared up and the great burden has been lifted allowing her to dream the dream of righteous.
Traces of houses in distance were now visible to Gray as he continued to look at countryside, seemingly trying to slip out of his mind that he can smell her soft fragrance. Sun was slowly moving toward the west, soon to set and to Gray it was a sign that they are about to reach the station. He moved his right hand and gently placed on top of her hand, shaking lightly until she opened her eyes.
"Hey, Juv, wake up" he said in soft tone "We are almost here."
"Huh? Oh… ummm yes, yes… Juvia is sorry…" she blushed a bit realizing in what position she was, though he didn't show any signs of protest.
"No need to be, come on, we'll be there in about five… best we prepare." They both nodded to this and stood up and moved toward the exit.
Within those five minutes, train has reached the station and they both left the train, taking the opportunity to stretch from the long sitting. Gray rubbed his face, image of the dream still lingered in his head but he knew his own patterns… before long same dream will come again.
"Silver lake should be there, just beyond those hills" he looked and pointed toward the distant location "but we can't reach it before dark. We'll need some basic camping supplies for the night."
She simply nodded, having no other words to say and followed him, having two steps distance between them. They both moved in silence, not saying much more than listing items and provisions needed as they moved from one merchant to another. Occasionally Juvia's gaze would land on a store selling dresses and faint smile would emerge… days when she daydreamed about them seemed so recent and yet so far into the past. In that moment, a single thought emerged in her head… Will things ever be as they were?
Within ten minutes they were all ready and left the town, marching toward Silver lake but the sun has already reached its final destination. At this moment, buying all this camping equipment seemed pointless when Clover Town was still within eyesight but neither of them were tired and decision to walk even during the cover of night seemed acceptable.
The air was cool, night breeze blew past them as they walked and what few clouds were in the sky soon dispersed, revealing the countless stars that dotted endless black curtain.
"Let's make a camp here" Gray suggested and Juvia nodded. The darkness of the night covered his disappointment at her lack of words. There was still something bothering him. Was their talk effective? Did it really fix things between them? But she said that she can see me as a friend now again so… it is improvement? Then why is she avoiding talking to me? No it's not as if she is not talking to me it is… it is as if she doesn't want to start conversation with me.
He shook head fast and focused again on setting up camp. Knowing that it was usually Natsu who was starting fire, Gray remembered to buy but a single firestone that he threw into center of gathered firewood and they ignited. Useful little thing. He took two cans of food and placed them above the fire, to heat up, marveling how little they needed to buy when Natsu is not around to eat. Soon after the quick meal, it was time to grab some sleep but the nap in train did wonders in preventing any sleep to come.
"Gray-san?" Juvia asked, breaking the long moment of silence as she was tucked into sleeping bag, looking up at the stars.
"Hm?"
"That time, when Gray-san was talking with Juvia after games… did Gray-san meant everything he said?"
"Depends…" he said halfhearted "What exactly do you refer to?"
"Nothing…" She turned, facing away from him "Good night Gray-san"
"Yeah… night" he responded, wondering what she could mean about it. Gray remembered that conversation well, when he took her away from the celebration at Fairy Tail's guild hall to talk. Despite his greatest effort to bring up the fact that he considers her more of comrade and good friend than lover, she always found a way to turn his words in her own favor. At the time, it bothered him heavily… perhaps it was her naïve attitude, perhaps refusal to accept facts that bothered him, but now… now he couldn't but notice that all of those naïve moments and twisting of words looked more like sign of love than obsession… at very least… he thought of it that way.
Right, well… you done it good this time Gray he thought to himself You missed your chance to give a chance.
Dawn came and with it first rays of sun emerged from beyond the hills and between the trees, waking duo from their short, light sleep and they were again on their way to Silver lake. Road wasn't difficult, seemingly well built for people and signs by this road pointed them in right direction. Couple hours later and they arrived at small village that was lying among the small hills and by the lake which under the rays of sun reflected the light and gave strange silvery glitter from the surface. Both Gray and Juvia were surprised, enjoying this rather unique view of a lake that was rightfully given its name. Village itself didn't look anything like humble, quite contrary, it looked more like vacation spot and pair suddenly began asking themselves what could possibly be so threatening to it.
"Good day, you must be the wizards from Fairy Tail" a man well in his fifties greeted pair as they entered village. Wide smile and bald head that reflected sun perfectly distracted them. Man was rather short, a bit round around his waist and long moustache that defied gravity with ease.
"We came as fast as we could" Gray started "From what our guild master has told us, you are in great need of our assistance"
"Yes yes, you are quite correct" man said with worried face "We haven't had this big of a crisis in years I am afraid and it might affect entire village!"
"Do not worry sir, just point us in direction of the problem"
Three hours later and the scene looked rather grim for Gray. He was sitting by the tree… he was on the verge of breakdown.
"I cannot… believe… carps…" He said, every word sounded louder than previous one. Juvia was emerging from the water, making a ball of water follow her with couple of carps swimming inside. As she approached to Gray he extended his finger and touched the ball of water, making it freeze instantly and fall down among the others… Pile of these icy balls was growing and each had at least one and quite a few even several of fish inside, frozen.
"When Master said mission was important, I imagined… I don't know, giant lake monster, not caprs!" He yelled "They are not even dangerous!"
"But village mayor said that visitors tend to get bitten" Juvia added
"Yeah, but it's not as if you get serious injury, they cannot even bite your skin off the muscle! And since when do carps bite?"
"T…true… but he also said that because of them income has decreased and visitors don't swim in the lake… it is important to village."
"I understand that but why… us? Wendy could have done this, heck Happy would do this all alone gladly!"
"Perhaps because Juvia can enter water and find them and Gray-san can freeze them?"
I am going to be laughing topic for months Gray sighed, watching Juvia return to water. Though he did understood why Natsu would be useless here and Erza would probably be overkill he felt as if this job was just a waste of time…
He moved head back and forth, lightly hitting back of his head against the tree and it came to him… a crazy thought. Perhaps old geezer did this on purpose; perhaps he set them both so they could at least talk. He is far too smart to miss what is going on in guild, perhaps he saw what happened that day and he is well known to interfere with guild members if it means fixing things. If that indeed was the case then he succeeded beyond expectation. Clever old geezer, I will have to thank him…
After five minutes of long dive, Juvia yet again emerged from the water carrying ball with two more carps inside that swam fast and erratic, trying to escape but alas with no success.
"Gray-san, these are only ones Juvia could find. Juvia thinks we got all of them" She said extending hand and making water ball move closer to Gray who with single touch froze the ball and made it fall down. Pile was indeed big and just as he got up, village mayor came to inspect the progress and wide smile emerged on his face.
"This is all of them, lake should be well… clean again, so to speak" Gray said and mayor clapped hands
"Marvelous, then please allow me to be your host for the evening, we shall prepare feast for our saviors!" he exclaimed, making Gray and Juvia exchange looks… Saviors might be a bit too strong word for this case "Visitors will yet again swim freely in our beautiful lake. Oh I almost forgot since we mostly full I do believe there are few rooms left… Would you prefer one or two rooms?"
Gray opened his mouth, the first thing that came to his mind and almost escaped through his lips was to ask for one room but after a second of revising this he quickly changed this thought "Two rooms will be best if possible"
"Of course of course, now please come, come! I'll have someone gather up the fishes and order a feast!"
They both followed him but it was Gray who silently judged himself, perhaps for not taking the risk of having them stay at same room but then again, another voice in head told him that pushing things might ruin what little was repaired. What was strange and unknown to Gray is that Juvia had those exact same thoughts.
Evening was approaching and the pair of wizards spend most of the time roaming village, observing rather large amount of shops inside with various wares, some strictly wizard related while majority was related to being souvenirs, few clothing shops and food stands. Breeze again started filling the streets, bringing the scent of grass and lake water into unusual mix.
"Gray-san look!" Juvia pulled him by the arm, making him involuntarily follow her to the souvenir stand. Her eyes gazed at small charm that was hanging, light blue in color with golden thread woven. This dreamy gaze was impossible for Gray to miss and he smirked lightly.
"How much for the charm?"
"Oh?" Seller looked where Gray was pointing "Rain charm? Excellent choice sir usually it is 2000 jewels but since you came to our aid it is only 1000 for you!" He grinned wide rubbing his hands together. Gray took out his wallet and paid the man, taking the charm and extending it toward Juvia who widened eyes at the gesture.
"U…um… it is kind of Gray-san but Juvia is not sure if she should take it…"
"Come on, I saw you looking at it" Well more like you dragged me to it… "Besides I heard these things are more effective if you give it to someone"
Juvia took the charm and looked at it, smiling wide while blush filled her cheeks. It was first time Gray gave her anything like this and the fact that he didn't just dropped into her hands like he used to do made it even more valuable to her. She closed her fingers around it and looked up at Gray still flashing her bright smile. Gray quickly looked away, avoiding to show that her smile had more effect on him than he was willing to show, and it did.
"Should we take something for the rest?" Juvia asked
"Why? Not like they did any work" Gray protested but it was met with frown from blue haired wizard.
"True but it would be nice gesture, they are our friends and Erza-san brings Juvia gifts when she goes on jobs…"
"Fine fine, I give up" Gray rubbed his forehead and looked at merchant "Do you have umm… shirt that says "I am the actual stupid one"? What?"
"Gray-san that is not nice"
"Alright then you pick then"
Juvia looked at the stand again, pondering at wide selection and took a small bracelet made of small bits of rocks resembling sapphires and rubies… an imitation but each of the rock had small emblem of the village.
"What about this for Natsu?" Gray lifted small keychain and Juvia looked at it
"Does Natsu-san has a lot of keys?"
"He has a key and it unlocks his house although not sure why he needs it… not like anyone would steal any of things he keeps inside. This will be good" he took another keychain but this one had small insignia in shape of dragon.
"What about Erza-san?"
"Well I would suggest wedding dress but she already has one" Gray kept looking at the stand. Juvia on the other hand was far less composed than he was… eyes widen and mouth open in shock "What? She has a thing for Jellal"
"But… but… are they really getting married?" She moved closer to Gray, still shocked
"Of course not, she just… likes to collect dresses and armors. Although I would lie to say that she doesn't make connection between two things?"
"Connection?"
The event that this connection referred to is a special kind of tease that Gray and Natsu once pulled off and nearly got killed because of it. One thing that is as accurate as gravity is that Erza's focus is unparalleled, her dedication unmatched and her swordsmanship undoubtedly finest in the land. On top of that, her requipping magic belongs to one of the strongest ever to be seen. However, Natsu and Gray discovered that while she cannot be interrupted when requipping into her armor, when she requips into non-combat clothes, her focus is flawed and can be influenced to a certain degree. There is one split second when her focus is at her lowest and they exploited.
After a long and hard training exercise Erza placed upon Gray and Natsu, they decided to pay her back by exploiting this little lack of focus. She was preparing to leave the guild hall and meet "old friend" who was deliberately not named but everyone knew who he actually is. Just as she was preparing to requip into her clothes, Natsu moved just behind her and whispered "Jellal"
Light vanished from her body and instead of purple dress she meant to equip she was standing dressed in full white, hair combed into bun with veil still lifted. At first she couldn't understand why everyone was staring however she did found odd that Lucy had her hands over her mouth and was on verge of letting out tears, but what actually set her off was couple of wizards behind her, laughing. She looked down and noticed her little… mistake in her requipping. Even with the blush on her face as red as he hair, she did not hesitate to beat both of them senseless… when she caught them. It has proven very difficult to run in wedding dress.
Juvia laughed as she heard the story, having few tears fall down on her cheeks. Gray was nodding, wondering if she was laughing because of image of Erza in wedding dress or the fact she beat the living crap out of them while wearing it.
"Yea if you are done, we should head back, I think feast is at the tavern"
"O…Oh Juvia is… khmm… Juvia is terribly sorry" she still giggled, wiping eyes "Juvia just found it very funny"
"Yeah I suppose being beaten by a bride in full dress does look funny" he grumbled slightly, paying for the things they bought, semi-content that they got bracelet for Lucy, keychain for Natsu and while Juvia was laughing… shirt for Erza.
"What about Happy? We forgot about him" Juvia added as Gray was slowly walking toward the tavern
"We'll grab one of the ice balls with carp, he'll be more than happy with it."
Feast was more of a small formal dinner. It was natural for them to be called feats though Gray learned so far that when word 'feast' was mentioned it involved several tables of food and Natsu occupying all of them… at once. Mayor was still as pleasant as ever, trying to lift the deeds couple did despite their protest that they only removed some fish from the lake. Juvia was in spirit of it, smiling all the while even though she was mostly quiet unless asked something directly. Thoughts of recent development occupied her mind as she was still confused as to where this was all heading.
Juvia, on one hand, was glad to be able to talk to Gray with ease, she was even happier about the fact that Gray became rather easy to talk to now. There were no usual attempts to run away or push her… rather, she felt as if he was deliberately trying to cut the distance and be closer. Her mind drifted from that thought and a little flicker of hope that things might become far better than she ever expected… but there was also the fear, there was also sadness… there was the memory of him shouting. This all was more than enough to keep her away from strange hopes that might appear.
Time went on and night came and with it pair decided to bid their hosts good night and retire for the day. They walked out and toward different inn where they were had rooms rented by the mayor. Pair stopped in front of Juvia's room that was across Gray's. She turned and looked up at Gray.
"Juvia had a lot of fun today"
"Yeah I guess it wasn't all that bad, plus the villagers are nice" Gray replied and Juvia nodded, looking down at her own feet.
"Juvia was thinking… a lot"
"What about?" He felt a rock stuck at his throat having the bad feeling of what might come from her.
"Juvia spent a lot of time trying to make Gray-san notice Juvia and… Juvia missed to have happy memories with Gray-san"
Ooh I really don't like where this is going…
"Juvia decided that she will rather have Gray-san as friend than to try again to be noticed" She looked up, her eyes glistening under the faint light of the lacrima crystals just behind Gray on opposite wall "Juvia wants to be close to Gray-san, but Juvia realized that to do that, Juvia needs to truly see Gray-san as friend."
His word slowly began crumbling, breaking from the inside out one bit at the time as the words sank into his mind. How often he wished to hear these words, to make her realize that he just sees her as a friend, but tonight was not one of those times… Tonight, he thought, was one of those nights where she would like to hear that he has some chance but words coming from Erza and the fact that he finally fixed some things did not allowed him to speak, to protest… Oh how much he wanted to protest now.
She reached for the door and opened it, looking inside. One step followed another and she stopped after second one standing neither nor out of the room. His fist clenched, his teeth gritted… She turned, looking one more time at him.
"Gray-san?"
"Yeah?" He managed to utter in soft tone
"Please don't misunderstand Juvia"
"What do y-" He started but he was rendered mute, interrupted in his question by something he did not expect. Her hands reached and wrapped around his neck and she pulled herself to him, pressing hard against his body and her lips against his. He was beyond shock, his brain decided to scatter itself outside of his skull over the entire hallway. It wasn't a deep kiss, it wasn't passionate one, it was shallow but long. Before he could manage to place his hands on her back she pulled herself away and closed the door, leaving him still petrified, trying to comprehend the amount of mixed emotions that right now swirled inside his head.
Juvia's legs gave up as soon as doors closed and she fell down on her behind. She leaned against the door and her hand quickly pressed her lips as dark red color filled her cheeks. Her heart beat hard, trying to escape her chest and in this moment all uttered a single sentence "Why did Juvia do that?"