Chapter Four

Sostendo

Everyone was clamoring to have a chance to talk to Juvia after she gave her debut performance. She had nailed it, really. She blushed a bit at the attention. Mirajane threw an arm around her and gushed.

"Isn't she wonderful, though?" she praised. "Knew she'd give this place a kick."

"I know someone else who could use a kick!" crowed Natsu. "Eh, Laxus?!"

"Shut up!" snapped Laxus Dreyar, who could probably kick Natsu to the curb like a can just because of his sizable bulk. But he just laughed with everyone else at the bar.

"Can I just say," another loud voice cut in, "that that really took me back? So, thank you for that, my dear."

Juvia looked around and came face to face with…

…Makarov Dreyar.

Her target.

Her objective.

He was right there.

Theoretically, she could draw her Sapphire now, shoot the man in the head before he could blink, and she'd still be able to get away even if everyone here tried to tackle her to the ground and tear her apart as vengeance. She'd gotten herself out of tighter spots. She was a fast enough shot, she could easily carve a bloody path through these people and be done with them, dashing out of the bar and vanishing into the night. It would be to her advantage that at first everyone would be too shocked to even move.

But….

Makarov smiled at her, and that smile…it was so kind. It gave Juvia pause. What man had smiled at her like that, apart from her father, whom she scarcely remembered before he died? After that, there had only been Porla, with his hot breath on her neck and the sound of his flicking switchblade, pressing a gun into her hand and guiding her arms to shoot.

"I…you're welcome," she finally managed to say, sweetly.

Do it. Do it now, and you're done here.

"You wouldn't happen to be open to requests, would you? I'd love to hear you do a cover of a Coltrane song. Just to hear a woman sing him."

For a moment, she remembered that there had been a time when adult men treated her with respect, and spoke to her with paternal softness. Juvia had forgotten how much she had always ached for it.

Until this moment.

The corner of Juvia's mouth curved upward, and something soft settled in her chest. "I do happen to have some Coltrane on my drive. I'll see what I can dig up for my next set."

Next set? What're you talking about?! Take him out! NOW!

Makarov beamed. "Excellent! I look forward to it. You're all right, kiddo." And he winked, and it wasn't even creepy the way it normally would be in Juvia's more unfortunate experience with older men. It was…grandfatherly. Truly grandfatherly.

Family. A family.

He wasn't the first old man to be her target, but he was the first one to speak to her like this. Like she was one of them.

Like…she was family.

It stalled her thoughts, her brain stuttering same as Lamborghini's engine. All she could do was smile in a moment of delirium.

Then he gave another laugh, his cheeks ruddy with drink. "All right! Now, where's that grandson o' mine?! I'm ordering another round!"

"Aw, come on, old man, you've had enough!" Laxus griped, massaging the back of his neck.

"I'll tell you when I've had enough! Ha ha! Mirajane!"

"Coming right up sir!"

"Mira, don't encourage him!"

And everyone in the bar laughed again, as Mirajane swept over, graceful as a swan, with a pitcher of beer, and she gave Laxus a flirtatious wink that Laxus colored a little at.

And Juvia was continually flooded with a warmth that had been long been sealed away…flooded with it like water….

Makarov disappeared into the crowd, into the shadows on the edge of the pool of lights on the little stage.

But then…perhaps she could get to him later. Yes, get him alone. Maybe when he went to take a piss or something. She'd also taken out targets in much less dignified places than that of a men's restroom. And there was nothing like bringing up those memories to do away with the pleasant, summery warmth that had just briefly overpowered her.

Even as she thought this however, the warmth that had flooded into her from all of the gathered camaraderie of the Fairy Tail Bar, rose up again, stronger, and grew comfortable in her chest, and trying to push it aside now simple depressed her, almost beyond her ability to function, like those rainy days suffering through withdrawal, Gajeel force-feeding her chicken noodle soup. Then, just as it occurred to her that Gray Fullbuster was nowhere to be found when Natsu and his perky blonde girlfriend Lucy Hearfilia came over to chat next, she spotted the man himself step out of the men's room, hands deep in his jeans pockets, chains dangling from the beltloops, and it was like a lance of sunlight through that vale of rain in her heart.

"Join us for a drink, Juvia?" Lucy invited cheerily, clutching Natsu's arm, underneath which Juvia spotted the grip of his pistol in its shoulder holster.

Juvia put on a smile. "Sure."

"Wonder if I should see if Gray's gonna come out any time soon," Natsu muttered as they shoved their way to the bar.

"It's all right, he's here." Juvia nodded in Natsu's direction, where Gray had just appeared next to them after ducking around the crowd at the other end of the bar.

"Yah! Don't sneak up on me like that man!" Natsu snapped when he realized Gray had been standing there.

Gray smiled and gripped his friend's shoulder. "Sorry. Didn't I tell ya, I'm part ninja?"

"If anyone's part-ninja, it's me," Natsu grumbled, and Lucy patted his arm pacifyingly.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna pack it in," said Gray, and then, for some reason, he glanced at Juvia.

Which, for some reason, prompted Juvia to respond, with a challenging raise of her eyebrow, "Oh? Not gonna stick around to see how well I handle my liquor?"

Gray blinked, struck a bit dumb, taking his hand off of Natsu. "Uh…well, I hadn't…ah…thought about that…." He averted his eyes then, assuming a morose and closed-off air.

"Ooooooh, are you challenging Gray to a drinking match?" Lucy asked, raising her eyebrows up and down, glancing between Juvia and Gray. "You should know that aside from Erza, Gray's the best man in Fairy Tail to hold his liquor."

"Hey, what about me?!" Natsu demanded, looking betrayed. "Am I really second to Gray?!"

"Sorry, hon, but it's true," Lucy teased, at which Natsu gave her a sort of noogie before planting a kiss on her cheek, which made her giggle.

Juvia found the exchange rather adorable, and part of her was starting to warm to Natsu's girlfriend, even as she knew she probably wasn't going to see her ever again. Because if she played her cards right with a drinking contest with Gray, perhaps she could get him drunk enough to keep him off his guard, while she kept an eye on Makarov, and seize her chance to get him when the opportunity presented itself.

In that case though—

"Natsu, Lucy, you want in?" Juvia offered.

"Hell, yeah!" Natsu crowed, launching a fist into the air.

"Yeah!" Lucy cheered, raising her hand and the two of them high-fived each other.

Gray though seemed indecisive, which was just as well. Juvia could take it or leave it if he stayed. If he stayed, she'd get him just as wasted as the other two, and if he left, well that was one less person to worry about. Actually, it'd be better if he was as far away from this place as possible when she carried out her mission here.

But then their eyes met again, and a thrill passed through her, that warmth, that sunshine.

And the corner of Gray's mouth crooked, no longer acting aloof with her like he'd been doing earlier.

"Yeah. Sure. All right. You're on." Then his eyes got steely. "If you think you can handle it."

The challenge in his dark gaze was something that set Juvia's heart aflutter, excited her, made her eager like a wolf baying for blood.

She grinned. "I don't plan to lose to you."

"Well, then, Juvia Lockser, bring it on."

Gray's head was spinning. Juvia wasn't kidding when she said she could hold her liquor.

They were shot for shot for shot, drink for drink now. Seven drinks, ranging from vodka to whiskey, to even the fancy-fancy stuff like cognac and brandy. Just to give it some variety. Natsu was down for the count after that, and Lucy seemed to fake being out too just so she'd still be sober enough to text for an Uber driver to come pick them up. That is until a responsibly sober Lisanna offered to drive them home instead. At which point the two of them waved to everyone who was left as they staggered out the door with Lisanna, who was hiding her mouth behind her hand, but judging by her cheeks it looked like she was smiling fondly.

Gray and Juvia pushed onward, with Mirajane keeping score on the corner of the chalkboard where the drink specials were listed, while at the same she'd gradually wave people one by one out of the bar, including that brunette with the white ribbon in her hair, who noticeably tried to catch Gray's eye again when he happened to glance that way, but then she got swept out of the door by her girl friends.

What was up with her? he wondered.

He shook it off. It wasn't exactly anything to get worried about.

Makarov was one of the last to leave, Laxus half-carrying him out while he was drunkenly caterwauling something that vaguely resembled a song, but not any song Gray had ever heard before. He chuckled under his breath before taking another swig of the drink he and Juvia were on now, scotch. When he checked to see if she could hear that abominable singing and what she must think of it, she was still caught up in a paroxysm of laughter from the joke he'd just told, and there was something very endearing about the way her laughter was unbridled, unfettered, occasionally punctuated by tickled shrieks. Even a snort snuck in there, which made Gray spit-laugh his drink, which just made them both laugh.

In that moment, they were like kids, giggling over juice boxes.

On top of that, from the next drink to the next, he and Juvia swapped stories about this and that. Juvia told him about the various other jobs she'd had, as a waitress, as a restaurant hostess, how she'd worked to hone her jazz-singing when she saw a jazz singer in a club some years back, and decided she wanted to do that too, something more than just wait tables. And he, very carefully, told her a few things about himself in turn. Just the tip of the iceberg, he liked to keep it that way, nothing serious. Like how he'd previously worked as a bounty hunter (there had been times where he'd ended up in some pretty hilarious predicaments, not least accidentally barging in on a naked woman in a dressing room while he'd been on the hunt, at which point she'd shrieked and come after him with a stiletto—shoe, that is), before he came here, discarding the fact that when he did come here, it was more like he'd crawled onto a beach after nearly drowning, broken down from the people he'd had to kill in his line of work: after all, not all of his bounty heads had been wanted alive by those who'd put out the bounty.

Things were starting to get starry though now, and Gray's judgment was fast slipping away. When he next glanced sidelong at Juvia, he got that feeling again that he had when he first saw her, how she was a knockout, and knocked him off his feet—or his metaphorical spirit, anyway. His heart started to pick up speed, revving like an engine, like that sleek Lamborghini, and he had a sudden, feverish fantasy about taking her in the backseat of that car, their arms wrapped around each other, legs entwined, all breath and flesh and pulse, and they'd writhe there together underneath the stars and he'd just indulge in his lust for her and the touch of her skin on his, purely, yet raw and undiluted.

His chest got hot, and he very subtly slid a little closer to Juvia's seat at the bar.

She, meanwhile, was downing her scotch like it was water. She'd even taken it straight, rather than neat. "Good stuff, Mirajane!" she complimented, perhaps a little too vivaciously. Seemed that she too was getting starry in the head. "Whew! How're you holding up Gray?" she asked, turning to him, cheeks red as a siren light.

God, she was gorgeous. She radiated so much warmth that Gray felt his very soul was lapping it up like milk and honey. Or something like that. He wasn't exactly thinking with a clear head right then.

"No' t'bad," he slurred, though not terribly. He leaned a little closer to her, raising his eyebrows. "I cud yuza smoke, though."

"Yeah?" Juvia lifted an eyebrow. "You good to stand?"

"Mmmmm…."

Gray put one foot out and tried pushing himself up, and instead he slid a little and nearly fell to the floor off of his seat. Lucky Juvia caught him by his arm, and they looked at each other…and then laughed. Again.

"I d'nt thinkso," he admitted, getting back up into his seat with Juvia helping some to pull him up. He experienced a whisper of wistfulness when her hand left his arm where she'd gripped it. It had been so soft, and strong for a hand that was so small.

Resting beside his on the bar, her hand was so much smaller than his, and paler too.

It stirred in him the sort of feeling that got stirred in people when they came upon a box full of sweet little kittens that all looked up hopefully and adorably at the same time.

He glanced at the other end of the bar at Max smoking a cigarette while chatting with Warren about baseball while Mirajane closed out thier tabs at the register. Then he pulled out his own cigarettes from the pocket his unbuttoned shirt blue hibiscus shirt and shook two out. It looked like Juvia didn't carry her own—the sort of smoker who did it sparingly, usually bumming smokes off of other people, which was fine.

He held the two cigarettes out to her.

She took one of them from him in her fine and polished fingers, the nails painted a metallic blue. He lit up, and then leaned over and touched the tip of his burning cigarette to hers. At first she hesitated, clearly having expected him to just hand her his lighter and let her light it herself. But then she leaned in too, and their lit cigarette tips met. The end of hers caught, and started to burn, real slow.

They drew back and each took a puff, blowing smoke up into the air, cool as could be, the two of them. Then she gave him a critical look.

"So, one minute you're acting like I'm a chip on your shoulder, and the next you're being a gentleman and lighting my cigarette?" she asked, rather accusingly.

She might not've been slurring like Gray, but she too was losing her inhibitions. Gray was both intrigued and afraid of this. Well, more afraid of himself.

And she was right. Earlier he'd acted stiffly around her, annoyed more with the universe than her that events were bringing them in close proximity to each other, just when he'd made up his mind to listen to the universe trying to warn him that it was dangerous to get in too deep with someone like him.

But then, here he was, and she'd sweetly serenaded a song that had painfully reminded him of his foster mother, and the way he'd lost her, the split that had wedged in between him and Lyon, making him cry like a child, and when he'd come back, and she'd challenged him to a drinking contest of sorts, he'd just…accepted. Like the "fuck it" part of his brain had taken over, and the more rational side was powerless to stop him.

She rendered him that way. She was a presence that was hard for him to ignore, hard for him to steer clear of. He was the stupid cold moth, drawn to flames, even if most of those flames were deadly zappers.

Damn, he was drunk.

"Aw, fuck," he growled and took another draw on his cigarette, blew out smoke, tapped some ash off into a nearby ashtray with the Fairy Tail logo stamped on. "Just bein' polite. Like everything else I've been doin' for ya. Thought I told you that." He made sure there was frost to his tone.

Juvia knitted her brow and studied him. He could see that he had stung something inside there, deep down inside there, in those ocean-deep depths of her eyes. Then she said, "What if I told you that right now I'm fighting the urge to throw myself into your arms and go alllllllllll the way with you?"

Gray snorted on a laugh. "Seriously? I'd say you were an idiot, then." Then he glanced at her as he drew on his cigarette again. After he blew out the smoke, he asked, "But…maybe you're just looking for one beautiful night? Been a while since you had a good screw, kitty needs a little petting?"

"You don't have to put it so crudely," Juvia groused, and sidled a little away from him.

Gray was simultaneously relieved and bereft at the withdrawal. He sort of hunched over the bar and his drink apologetically. "I'm bad medicine, that's all. I won't cure your ills. I'll just make you sick." Or worse.

"Oh, I highly doubt that," said Juvia, a little more sympathetic.

Shit.

But he did want her. He really wanted her. The way her song had affected him still echoed inside him, and bit by bit she was prying open his vulnerability. He could only imagine how blissful it would be to escape into her arms, bury himself into her and hold her close, the rainfall scent that fell off of her surrounding him, filling him, filling that hole in his chest.

"Listen, I'm no angel either," Juvia admitted quietly, drawing Gray back out of himself.

"What? You?"

"I mean it. I'm a bad girl."

It was Gray's turn to frown sympathetically. Of course, it was possible this woman had done things in her past she wasn't proud of, or suffered losses that made her do terrible things in turn, same as him, which damn it, just increased his need to feel this woman.

"You can't be," Gray told her, also going quiet.

"Don't let the way I look fool you," she pressed, almost like a warning.

But that way she was talking, almost like he was, with a defensive wall put up, triggered something: Gray leaned closer, and before he knew it, he was brushing his lips against hers. He heard her sharp intake of breath, felt it against his lips. They were so soft, even in that brief moment of touch.

Kiss her. He wanted to kiss her and kiss her and kiss her so fucking badly.

And after her moment of shock, she brushed her lips against his in return, accepting, willing.

They opened their eyes and looked at each other, and suddenly Gray wanted to cry.

"Fuck," he whispered and pulled away.

"Gray," Juvia murmured, a little plaintively.

But Gray was starting to shake off some of the drunkenness, even as he downed the rest of his scotch and got to his feet with improved coordination. He slammed the empty glass on the wood top. "You win. Sound good?" He marked the point by twisting out his cigarette in the ashtray.

And without waiting for an answer, he went over to the register and called in his tab. As he was leaving, he glanced back once and sadly saw Juvia order another scotch, just for herself. Just for her own little lonesome.

After a few more drinks and hastily finishing off her cigarette, she used the Uber app and hitched a ride home alone. To her dismay, she'd let herself forget about keeping an eye on Makarov and he was gone by the time she'd thought about it again. She needed the extra few drinks just to take the edge off of her magnificent failure as an expert assassin. That and…how that drinking contest had ended.

Moreover, Gray's half of the duplex was depressingly dark. Juvia sighed and stepped passed where her Lamborghini was parked safe in the drive and into her own side of the building, and curled up on the air mattress, thousands of regrets swirling in her head.

She'd chickened out taking out her target, so now she was still stuck here, working the mission. And on top of that, even though there was definitely a primal part of her that just wanted Gray for one night of satisfaction, there was a better part of her, nestled in her heart, that was very much falling in love with him, hard and fast. She couldn't explain why, it was just…there. She wanted to know more about him, about his life as a bounty hunter, sensing a darkness there that he was keeping from her, a darkness that echoed her own. A fellow shadow that told her, "You're not alone anymore."

She was on the edge of tears as she thought about this, and outside, it started to rain.

By morning, the leaves in the trees were dripping, but the skies had since cleared. Instead of being pleasantly awoken by the twitter of the birds, Juvia was jarred awake by the jangle of her cell.

It was Porla.

"Good morning, starshine," Porla crooned into her ear. "The earth says, 'Hello'." He laughed. "You like that? Didn't think I was into musicals, did ya?"

Juvia shoved a hand through her mussed up blue hair. "Good…morning?" She tried not to sound whimpery, as one does when they're woken up and really just want to go back to sleep. Especially with a pounding headache from a night a heavy drinking thrown on top of that.

"Think you can give me a little status report?"

"Oh…um…."

"Need some time to wake up, sweetie?"

"Oh. Uh-huh."

Juvia sat up slowly, but her mind was starting to race as she tried to think of something to say. The truth was that she'd screwed up last night and missed an opportunity. Porla wasn't exactly the sort of person who liked to hear things like that. So what was she going to fill that space of time with instead?

Think. Think. THINK! What do I tell him?

Why was she even having difficulty with this? She was always so good at thinking on her feet. What the actual fuck was wrong with her?

"Ah, well…okay so…I had a chance to chat with the old man…."

"Yeah, Makarov Dreyar?—Yes!"

He must be playing darts before breakfast. Because why not? Juvia bit her lip, still trying to think quick, taking advantage of Porla celebrating what was clearly a bullseye. She pressed her palm to her forehead.

"Yeah…so…anyway, uh…well, I had a chance to chat with him, but well…the timing wasn't ideal to take him out so…my angle at the moment is just to get him to trust me enough to be alone with me."

"Ah, well, you could always seduce the old fucker. You've handled wrinklier bastards."

"I have indeed." Juvia tried to laugh like it was nothing.

It did look like she was in the clear though at least.

Until Porla suddenly added:

"And you know, Juvia babe, you always do such a good job of remembering who you really belong to. I can tell things like that."

This gave Juvia pause. And then she looked down, lowered her free hand and laid it a little sadly over her lower stomach. "You've laid your claim on me, I know," she murmured, part of her mind fallen into a kind of trance. She'd repeated this a thousand times to him, though it had been a while since the last time she had. "I'm all yours."

"Very good. You know how much I enjoy that, don't you Juvia? That you're mine? All mine?"

"Yes. I do."

"Because you owe me your life, you know."

"Yes. I know."

"You'd be dead without me."

"Yes. I know that…Jose."

"Good. Very good. That's what I like to hear."

Oh yes, he'd made it very clear from the very first that she belonged to him, that he was the cage she couldn't break free from. Every kiss that had made her squrim, every smack and bruise and scar he'd marked her with, especially the one on her stomach.

"Happy hunting, Siren." Porla blew her a kiss over the line.

When she heard the click of Porla hanging up, Juvia threw her head back and stared up at the ceiling. As tears filled her eyes again, she covered them with one hand and just let herself weep again like last night.

Then her phone rang again, and it was Natsu calling about her car being all ready to go.

On Saturdays, Happy's kept half-day hours and was closed Sundays. So Natsu and Gray were able to switch off having Saturdays off, since on a half-day, the place could afford to lose one of its two employees. Seemed as though today was Gray's day off then.

Juvia did her best to keep the sadness out of her voice as she thanked Natsu.

She wasn't sure it worked.

"I saw, you know," said Mirajane, rather passively-aggressively actually.

"What?" Gray asked, though he had a feeling he knew, and it sank like a stone in his stomach.

"You and Juvia…that little…'moment of intimacy'. You guys kissed, right?"

Gray snorted, dismissive. "Fuck no, she was telling me some silly secret. We were drunk."

Mirajane made a, "Hm," sound as she folded up a clean dishtowel and tucked the end of it in the sash she wore at her waist with her dress that evening.

"What's that 'hm' for?" Gray demanded, nettled, swilling the ice in the scotch he'd ordered for his first drink of the night. Fuck, it was only five and he was already drinking. The bar wasn't even open, but Mirajane was happy to give him an early start on the evening. It was a Saturday, after all, and tonight was special. Tonight, Jellal was supposed to join them with Erza.

In the meantime, Gray had spent the better part of his day lying out on his sofa, staring up at the ceiling or trying and failing to get himself lost in one of the paperbacks on his little bookshelf, while smoking cigarette after cigarette, until he'd blown through the entire pack, anxious for it to get late enough that it wouldn't be unclassy for him to start drinking. Which was saying a lot, since he'd woken up that morning, dead with a hangover, and nearly started washing out the bad taste in his mouth out with Southern Comfort instead of Listerine. Lucky he did hold off though, or he might be at home right now, passed out. Maybe even worse.

That and it had been a long time since he'd killed an entire pack of cigarettes in one day. Actually, it used to be that two packs a day was the norm. He'd worked to tone it down since then.

In answer to his query, Mirajane gave a shrug. "Nothing, just…it seemed like the two of you were…hitting it off? Clicking? You know. The way you talked to each other…it was so relaxed. Then again, maybe that was the booze."

"Yep, you're right. It was the booze." Gray knocked back a swig from his glass, relishing in the burn that flowed like liquid fire down his throat and sank into his stomach.

"Still, alcohol can only do so much," Mirajane pointed out. "It isn't that it makes people attractive or anything like that, it's more that it tears down all the reasons you gave yourself not to have a little bit of fun. That's my opinion, anyway." And she grinned.

Gray growled under his breath but couldn't think of anything to say to that.

And the door opened and Erza walked in…alone.

"Erza," said Mirajane, frowning in concern.

But Gray had a feeling about what had happened.

Erza looked tired when she took her aviators off and set her bag on the bar. She managed to give Gray and Mirajane a smile, if a beleaguered one.

"Sorry guys," she said before she could be asked the obvious question, "Jellal's not gonna make it in tonight. He just…wasn't as ready as he thought he'd be. Not yet anyway. So, his therapist came over to keep an eye on him. They have a good relationship though so it feels like he's having a pal over rather than a doctor."

It was obvious she would have rather stayed with him, but he had probably insisted that she go out and have fun, that she shouldn't let him hold her back—which, given he'd just gotten out of the hospital, wasn't a very good sign.

Gray lowered his eyes to his drink. He remembered what had happened to put Jellal in the hospital this last time. He'd had a breakdown when a car backfired in the street, but what made it different this time was that it had been here in the bar. Gray could still hear the poor bastard's screams, unable to stop even when Erza'd had him by both wrists and was trying to reach him with her words.

"Shit," Gray muttered. "I'm sorry about that, Erza," he said, sincerely sympathetic.

Erza caught his eye, and she was able to tell him without words that she was glad guys like him had her back.

Naturally, everyone else was disappointed about Jellal, those who knew him better especially. Natsu reacted with a, "Fuck," growled through his teeth and Lucy and Levy offered their heartfelt sympathies and reassurances that the guy would come around, he just needed time, something with which Erza honestly agreed. By that point, Gray was on his second drink and about to order his third, when the door opened again, the bar packed but a little more funereal for a Saturday, given Erza's news, and in walked Juvia.

Gray just stared at her. She was wearing another beautiful dress, one of sparkling aqua like crystal clear seawater. He knew it wasn't the drinks—or rather, it wasn't just the drinks—but she just got lovelier every time he saw her.

Then Natsu elbowed him in the ribs. "You know, she sounded kinda off today," he said. "You guys have a fight or something?"

Gray blinked at him. "A fight? What? No? Why would that even be a thing?"

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Come on man, you guys were left to drink alone last night. Seemed like you were having a good time. You seemed happy. Awake even."

"Awake?"

"You know what I mean."

"You must be Juvia!"

Gray and Natsu looked up and saw that Erza had pushed her way over to Juvia on the spot: apparently her blue hair and the fact that she wasn't Levy was enough for Erza to figure out who she was. But then, she wasn't the chief of the seventh precinct—and one of the best cops around—for nothing.

Juvia couldn't even get a word out as Erza grasped her hand in hers.

"Mirajane told me about you," Erza said brightly. "I'm Erza Scarlet."

"Oh." Then Juvia smiled. "I've heard something about you too…. Chief of Police, Seventh Precinct?"

"Guilty. Well, not really, otherwise I wouldn't be a cop, ha ha. Can't wait to hear you sing for myself," Erza added, as the two ladies weaved in and out of people on their way back to the bar. "Two Strawberry Ambers, Mira," she added to Mirajane. "My treat."

"Oh, no, that's all right."

"Please, I insist…."

Mirajane slapped two beer bottles on the bar and popped the caps off of both, then passed them to Erza and Juvia on coasters with a grin. "Two Strawberry Ambers. On the house. My jazz singer gets her drinks free, remember?" She did however graciously accept the tip Erza passed her between her two index fingers and drop it into the tip jar. They'd call it even and say it was going toward Lisanna's community college classes.

"Cheers," said Erza, and she and Juvia clinked bottles.

They both took a long quaff from their beers, and there was something that passed between them that was almost like kindred spirits. Juvia's meeker smile widened. Gray found himself wondering, as he nursed his own beer, if Juvia had ever had a girl friend before. Something about her just told him that she hadn't.

Still, he stayed quiet and morose in his own seat at the bar, occasionally glancing at Juvia and Erza chatting, admiring the way Juvia's blue locks fell like water, thick about her shoulders, and caught the warm light.

Then Lisanna and Elfman went up and did their standup schtick, followed by Mirajane and her smoldering pop covers.

After that, Juvia started things up with "I Put a Spell On You", which Gray took personally—but then again, he found it hard to argue with what she was singing. Because she had put a spell on him, whether he liked it or not.

His heart pounded in his chest like before, and all he could do was stare. For one moment, he thought that she was looking at him, and it occurred to him that she might've been trying to catch his eye all evening.

He was such an idiot.

He knew that.

But what could he really give her, other than his body for a night? He was too screwed up. Too many dangerous people were gunning for him, and those were just the ones he knew about.

He was….

"All I Could Do Was Cry" was followed by this, and this turned around and wrenched at his heart. Yet it didn't do so because it reminded him of the past. He was fully in the present, and he didn't know if he was the only one who saw, but to his eyes, Juvia was pouring a pain out onto the stage. He knew something about that, and his throat grew tight. He was on the edge of crying for her and the raw look of anguish on her face.

"I'm losing

the man that I love

And all

I could do

was cry"

Next came a jazzy rendition of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" where she appreciably made a pistol with her hands and fired into the crowd every time she sang "Bang Bang" in the chorus. At one point, he could have sworn she shot at him, and for some reason that gave him a weird thrill.

Then it went on until she finished out with "A Sunday Kind of Love", another song where Gray could tell her plaintive tones came from a place of sincerity.

"I want a

Sunday

Kind of love

A love to last

Past

Saturday night

And I'd like to know

It's more than love at first sight

And I wanna Sunday kind of love

…

Can't seem to find somebody

Someone to care

And I'm on a lonely road

That leads to nowhere

I need a Sunday kind of love"

Lots of people stood, clapped, and whistled when she finished, giving them all a curtsy and drifting off stage as the lights came up.

"Damn it." Gray threw back the rest of his drink. This was his seventh now.

Strangely though, instead of mingling with the others like she'd apparently been doing the night before after her debut, Juvia seemed to excuse herself after Mirajane complimented her off the stage, and darted out of a back door that led out to the alley between this building and the one next door. The one where Lyon cornered him the night before last night.

Not that it meant anything necessarily, it still gave him a bad feeling, seeing her step out alone. Not that this neighborhood was bad, regardless of Lyon creeping around, but still, they were in that part of the city that walked on just the edge of being "sketchville", and he wasn't sure what experience Juvia might've had in handling herself.

"Gray?" Natsu looked round as Gray slid away from the bar.

But Gray barely heard him. He went out the front door, that was closer.

He knew it was there, could feel the weight of it, his father's Silver Desert Eagle in his shoulder holster. As usual, he felt better that it was there. Just in case.

Juvia was gasping for a cigarette. It had been years since she'd habitually smoked. The cigarette she'd had with Gray the night before had been the first in a while. When Gajeel had gotten her to get clean, she'd thrown smoking in there too as a precaution. And drinking only somewhat.

But there she was, raw, vulnerable, nerves ragged, and she desperately wanted the intoxicating and relaxing escape of a cigarette and another good stiff drink.

"Shit," she muttered, hugging herself—hugging herself the way she used to when she was having those bad comedowns, rocking back and forth in a corner, Gajeel's voice coming to her ears as if through water.

"Rain Woman…come on…hey…I'm right here…."

Crap, she was gonna start crying again. No. More than that, she was gonna start bawling.

Gray had been there, in the crowd. She'd caught his eye more than once, and there had been something in his eyes, even as it had been hard to see him with the bar so dark and the lights on the little stage so bright.

She'd felt it though. Like a spark traveling between them, reaching across the room to draw them both together.

Her head was clouded with liquor and sadness and remorse and the need for someone to just hold her like they actually fucking cared about her. Gray was being so cold with her when she tried, just because, to get a little closer to him, and yet…and yet…there was something in his eyes…like he too howled at night, in his soul, for someone to keep him warm, if only for a little while.

Juvia gave a sob, but she didn't cry. Not just yet.

"Fuck." She tipped her head back, pushing back her thick blue hair, staring up at the dark sky, the stars buried within clouds and beams of light pollution from the city.

She tried to turn her swirling, whirlpool thoughts to something else.

Something else that niggled at her brain.

She had spotted that Sherry Blendy chick poking around the motel she'd stayed at for a night as she'd been passing by the place in the Uber driver car she'd texted for, on the way to the bar that night. And something about it…Juvia had observed it with suspicion.

What the hell was up with her? Sneaking around like that?

In her line of work, she'd learned to take seemingly trivial things into as much account as ones of more import.

Juvia lowered her gaze to the ground, her blue hair thick curtains around her face. She chewed pensively on a thumbnail, her thoughts branching out on a pathway of possibilities as to what a woman like Sherry Blendy would want with sneaking around cheap motels.

A footstep.

Someone was there.

Juvia's head snapped up, and there stood a man who'd appeared like a ghost. He even had a shock of white hair. He was wearing a leather jacket and jeans, and he was smoking a cigarette, moseying around like he regularly took evening strolls in back alleys.

"Hello there," he greeted. "Well, aren't you a beauty?" He gave her a lopsided grin and ground the burning tip of his cigarette into the brick wall of the building where Fairy Tail Bar kept shop. Then he threw it to the ground, where it rolled into a puddle of water.

Juvia got a shiver. But she kept it cool, while at the same time she made sure her hand could easily snatch her Sapphire out from the thigh holster under her dress. Just in case.

"Why thank you," she said, playing coquettish, lifting one shoulder, angling it so that the leg where she had her gun was out of sight, so he wouldn't see her reach for it right away. "And what's a handsome devil like you doing out here, all alone on a Saturday night?"

"Eh, I was hopin' I'd run into a friend of mine. Guy by the name o' Gray Fullbuster." Lyon scratched at the wall he'd just crushed his cigarette out on and then looked at her. "Know him?"

Fear. And not for herself. It had been a while she'd felt that kind of paralyzing sensation. Not since Porla said to her, "I want you to kill Gajeel."

Even so, she kept on keeping her cool. "Maybe." She played like she had no idea what he was talking about, making to sashay over to him like all she was interested in was dragging him into a dark corner and letting him have her way with him.

Meanwhile that fear rippled through her, over and over.

She didn't know who this guy was, but something about the way he asked about Gray was sending up more red flags. Nobody who said they were "looking for someone" while materializing out of the shadows like this guy did was up to anything good.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the guy took out a beautiful mother-of-pearl stiletto pocketknife from inside his jacket and flicked it open. At the same time, that Sherry Blendy came out of the shadows from behind him, snaking a hand over his shoulder and cuddling up to him.

"Now, now, Lyon, that's enough playing nice. You're making me jealous." She grinned wickedly at Juvia. "Hey there. Small world, eh?"

"Yeah, small world," said Juvia bluntly, dropping the seductress act. Which for a moment seemed to catch Lyon off-guard. She took this opportunity to slide her hand down the length of her thigh, feeling for the slit in her dress, the handle of her Sapphire just beneath the delicate fabric—

The click of a gun hammer behind her.

Juvia went stiff.

And then Gray's voice behind her, cold and threatening:

"Lyon. Drop the knife…and get away from her."