Chapter Six

Tenerezza

"Lose the gun," Lyon ordered. "This is a knife fight, got it?"

Gray, never breaking his gaze from Lyon's, reached into his holster and took out his gun, throwing it aside. The silver Desert Eagle clattered on the pavement. "I agree. This is how it outta be."

Lyon's cold eyes flashed like the blade of the knife, a growl underneath his breath. "Sherry nearly died, y'know."

Gray didn't miss the pain burning just underneath his foster brother's icy voice, underneath those frosty eyes. He felt a flicker of sympathy for him. Whatever he was now, pushing drugs and the like for Lamia Scale, the two of them had still grown up together. Even if they'd constantly been competing, even if Lyon blamed him ruthlessly and mercilessly for Ur's death, he was still his foster brother. And it was clear that whatever he was doing with that Sherry Blendy, he genuinely cared about her…had probably waited anxiously while whoever had worked on her tried to keep her from bleeding out. It was almost comforting to know the man could still care about people.

But then Lyon sneered, his lip curling. "All right. I'm done talkin'. I wanna see your knife."

Gray took the knife out of his back pocket and snapped it open like Lyon's. He held the blade out with one hand, and made a little beckoning motion with the index fingers of his other hand.

"Come at me."

"You know you'll have to kill me if you wanna survive this."

Lyon took a few slow steps back and held his knife out same as Gray, and the two of them started to circle each other slowly in the backstreet.

"I don't wanna kill you, Lyon," Gray said, and he meant it. "But…I'll do what I have to."

They stopped, and for a moment, everything was still except for the breeze blowing through the broken windows of the drafty abandoned factories out here on the edge of town, soughing under the alley. It lifted their hair as they stared cold daggers at each other—

Lyon lunged and Gray leapt back, throwing up an arm to block. Lyon shoved against him, but Gray ground his heels into the gritty asphalt underneath his feet. If he didn't get on the offensive though, there was no way he was gonna live through this.

And for all the dark moments he'd spent, praying, begging for death…he wanted to live through this.

"Do you realize I've been dreaming of this since the day we last saw each other, when you told me how you got Ur killed?" Lyon gnarled, eyes boring into Gray's.

"You don't have to do this Lyon."

"Begging for your life? You pathetic fuck."

"No, I just want you to understand…I never meant for what happened to Ur…."

Ur's face flickered in Gray's mind, the last smile he saw her give before the Delioras killed her…all because of him…because of his anger and his stupidity….

"Face it, you've been praying for death for years," Lyon jeered. "I can see it in your eyes. My coming here's a mercy…."

"Not anymore, Lyon…I'm not…."

Natsu. And Erza. And Lucy.

And….

Gray gave a roar and managed to shove Lyon back with enough force that he slammed him back into the opposite brick wall. Lyon gave a cry of pain, but immediately threw himself back at Gray. Gray however managed to get a hold of Lyon's wrists and held him off, leaving them locked again, pushing against each other.

Lyon gave a yell and threw his entire weight against Gray, which didn't knock Gray into a wall, but managed to knock him off balance, and the two of them fell tangled to the ground.

Gray had scarcely hit the ground when Lyon was already yanking himself away.

"No!"

He threw his weight back at Lyon, which made them roll over the cracked blacktop, squirming, their arms becoming interlocked until they each had their knife blades inches from each other's faces.

A feral growl rose out of Gray's throat, sweat beading on his forehead, his heart slamming in his chest, his adrenaline skyrocketing, survival instincts kicking in.

Lyon's knife just scarcely nicked the skin at Gray's cheek, and Gray's knife twitched just shy of slicing through Lyon's flaring nostril. But the cold, sharp point of Lyon's poked Gray, and Lyon's mouth broke into a wolfish grin, all teeth.

Shit.

Gray gave another yell and threw his knee up, kicking Lyon in the stomach. Lyon had the wind knocked out of him and fell back, at which point Gray rolled them again so that he was over him and could bring the knife down.

But then Lyon blocked with his arm, as well as his leg, and tried to throw Gray right back off of him.

"Damn it!"

"Have you no shame?"

Gray hissed through his teeth at him.

Lyon seemed to only enjoy it more, the savagery he was bringing out of his opponent. "Remember when we used to fight like this as kids?"

"Lyon," Gray warned.

"Ur watching us…teaching us…." Lyon's glare sharpened. "She told you not to go, you idiot! But you never listened! Half the time you treated her like shit! And after everything she did for you! YOU SHOULDA DIED RIGHT ALONGSIDE YOUR PARENTS, YOU FUCK!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Gray yanked them both up and threw Lyon against the wall again, both of them on their knees. But this time, Lyon managed to cling to him and took Gray with him. Gray tried to regain control and drag them both up to their feet, but Lyon yanked him back down.

Then Gray lost sight of Lyon's blade—

An ungodly sharp pain shot through his side, and Gray seized up, choking on his breath. His whole body went limp, the pain burrowing deep inside of him….

He looked up at Lyon, and the way Lyon smiled at him, at the wicked triumph in his eyes, as it dawned on Gray that he'd just been stabbed in the gut. But instead of letting himself collapse backward, Gray took advantage of Lyon thinking he was about to win: he grit his teeth against the pain and headbutted Lyon in the forehead so hard that Lyon gave a cry and fell back, half-conked.

With a pained gasp, Gray yanked out Lyon's knife and then bent over him and put the blades of both knives in a crisscross shape just beneath the pulse of Lyon's Adam's apple.

Lyon, coming back to himself, blinked up at him and quickly grasped his situation. "You fuck."

"Now…cut this shit out," Gray panted. "Just let it go…it's over…and if I see you come near any of my friends…I swear to God I'll…."

"You'll what?" Lyon spat.

In answer, Gray took away Lyon's knife from his throat, held it up so the bastard could see, and before Lyon could utter a sound, jammed the blade into his lower leg.

Lyon screamed, and Gray spat in disappointment: he'd just been gut-stabbed and he hadn't cried like a bitch about it, even with his adrenaline working to block the majority of the pain.

"Fuck, man! Agh! Fine…I'll go, just…gahhhhhh…!"

"Swear to me…! Swear it…!"

He went ahead and jammed the other knife into Lyon's other lower leg.

"Gaaaaaaaaaah! Fuck, I swear, okay, I swear! Agggggghhhhhhhhh!"

At last, Gray yanked both blades out of Lyon's legs. He fell back, gasping for breath and staring at the two knife blades…both of them bloody…one with the name "Lyon" engraved in the handle, the other "Gray".

Ur had been glowing at the looks on their faces when they'd opened those wrapped boxes and saw those pearlescent knives for the first time, back when they were pristine and new.

Then, with an effort, using one hand clawing at the brick under the bridge, he practically crawled up to his feet. With one hand cradling his belly, he tossed Lyon's knife back to him.

"Here…" he gasped.

"Fuck you…" Lyon gasped back.

As far as Gray was concerned though, while he wouldn't kill him, he wouldn't save him either. That was up to Lyon.

Because he'd seen too, in Lyon's eyes, that he too had a part of himself inside that wanted to die.

Even so, he had this crazy idea that Ur was watching over them, shaking her head the way she used to, and in the end, she would look out for them both, same as she used to when they'd both come home covered in scratches and bruises after pummeling each other in the snow.

Gray pocketed his own knife, blood and all, and then picked up his gun and holstered it. Of course, he'd been stupid enough to leave his phone at home to charge it. Regardless, he had to get…somewhere he could get help…if he could make it….

He limped on down the wall, leaving Lyon behind.

"LIKE HELL THIS IS OVER!" Lyon shouted behind him. "GRAAAAAY!"

Gray stopped then, and closed his eyes as he gulped for air. "Lyon…please let it go…."

He heard Lyon give another pained gasp behind him, but he couldn't be sure if it was from his stab wounds or from something else.

Either way, if Gray didn't keep moving…he was gonna bleed out.

Just the same, he only managed far enough to get out of Lyon's sight, before he collapsed on the pavement in between another two buildings just a block away from the hospital on the corner.

The last thing he saw was his own blood mixing with the nearby puddle of water…and just a flicker of blue…and his name…cried out in the voice of an angel in pain.

"Gray!"

Earlier that morning, Juvia had needed some fresh air.

After she'd finished her coffee from Gray, she washed the thermos in the sink and set it on a towel on the counter. Once it dried she'd take it back to Gray. She tried not to think about the increasing possibility that she'd be telling him goodbye as she did this.

He'd asked her not to leave. Despite how closed off he could be, he'd sounded like he'd be really sad if she left.

As she thought on this, she went through her stock of weapons and checked them again, if only to give her something to do with her hands while she thought, other than uselessly pace. She even worked out later on in the afternoon, stuffing her pillowcases with sand from the nearby creek and hanging them from the ceiling so she could kickbox with them.

When she'd worked herself out enough, she caught the sound of pounding coming from outside and, as she stepped over to the window, mopping up sweat off her brow with another towel, she caught sight of Gray outside laying into a punching bag hanging from an oak tree. For a moment she watched him, fascinated by the strength of him.

Then her cell went off.

Juvia looked at it.

Jose.

Her thumb hovered over the "answer" icon on the screen.

But years of being trained like a dog took over in a Pavlovian way and her thumb twitched and hit that dreaded green circle before she could think about it for much longer.

"Hey," she answers quietly, still watching Gray.

"Juvi baby…."

Juvia shivered. He was getting impatient. He only called her "Juvi" or "Juves" like that when she started to annoy him, regardless if he still used that same oil-slick tone.

"Jose…."

"You wanna fill me in why you haven't blown the old Dreyar fucker away yet and come back to me?"

Juvia fumbled desperately with her thoughts, trying to find a convincing lie, all while watching Gray beat up that punching bag like he wanted to kill it. She pressed her palm to the glass pane of the window, wishing she could run to him…run to him and just…hide. Something about him made her feel so safe if nothing else.

"Your silence is more telling than words, dear Siren. Do you need me to send you a reminder of who you belong to?"

"N-No…."

"Good. Then you listen here…my little bitch…you had better get on this job quick…otherwise I may have to reschool you in a few things…."

"No…please don't…."

"Then again, maybe I will anyway just because I love to hear you beg…."

"Please don't…."

"Aw fuck…I've already got ya begging. Well…guess I can be merciful and give you one more chance. I still have faith that my Siren would never betray me, after all…."

The phone clicked off. She had been dismissed.

She was expected then to get her act together and do what she came here to do.

Gray finished beating up the punching bag and leaned against the trunk of the oak tree to catch his breath. Juvia watched him, wishing she could cling to his toned body the way his sweat-soaked tank was, while at the same time she clutched the phone to her chest, where her heart beat with both desire and fear.

The hand she still had pressed to the window curled into a fist, and suddenly she found it hard to breathe.

She had to get away before she got too heartsick or gave way to uncontrollable weeping. So she showered again and then pulled on a casual dress and stepped out to take a walk for a bit, her thigh holster lashed to her thigh with her Sapphire tucked into it.

In some ways, maybe she was looking to get into a fight. A real fight to work off her frustration. Punching and kicking sandbags hadn't been enough.

Actually, if she could have Gray, even just for one night, maybe….

God, that was low.

For her, one-night stands were only components of her job, they never had anything to do with satisfying her sex drive. Yet, at the same time, it wasn't just her sex drive…she wanted just one night at least to be spent in the bliss of the company of someone who did seem to care about her, if not deeply enough to love her given how little time they'd shared, then at least enough to bed her gently. To bed her in a way that would please her, to not have the pressure of it being for work block everything out.

That was why she always had to fake it, after all. Because…really…she was faking it.

That was nowhere near as bad as the killing, but it wasn't exactly on her list of experiences she wanted to remember.

What she wanted to remember…was something sweeter.

Before…before what?

If she wasn't going to kill Makarov, she'd have to leave.

No, she couldn't drag someone so good like Gray, or anyone else at the Fairy Tail Bar, like Lucy or Natsu or Erza…who'd have her hands tied by the law if she found out what Juvia really was….

She couldn't drag them into her shit.

It had been a long time since she'd experienced pain this sharp. Not since Gajeel left. And she found herself wondering about him too, imagining that maybe at least, this was her chance to get away same as he had when she'd let him go. Cut and run while Jose still thought that she was in his corner.

As these thoughts whirled in her head, she wound her way through the backstreets of Magnolia, to a neighborhood of little storefronts and corner stores, brightly lit and stark against the night that had emerged around her.

At the corner though was a massive hospital block.

Well, at least people'll know where to go if they get badly hurt around here, Juvia thought with a bitter smile, remembering many a night where she herself hadn't managed to flee in the aftermath of making a kill unscathed and had to limp to aid as soon as possible without the benefit of be able to call for an ambulance (for whatever reason, Porla hated when his people did that, perhaps because ambulances drew more attention).

Two blocks further down, she turned a corner into a back alley, starting to get tired and was just thinking of heading back to the duplex when she heard a crash and looked up to find someone who had first might've been a stumbling drunk, but she realized a second later that it was someone who was badly hurt.

And that someone was—

"Gray!"

Juvia's blood ran cold, and she dashed across the pavement, down the alley toward him without even having to think about it. Suddenly nothing else mattered except Gray—kind, closed off, but strong Gray—had gotten himself hurt. Undoubtedly he'd had another run-in with Lyon Vastia and this time things had gone even worse than before.

At her cry, Gray had lifted up his head, as though calling out to him had kept him from giving in and passing out. As though seeing her gave him life.

"Juvia…." He dragged himself up to his feet using one hand on the brick wall, his other hand holding his side. "You…." Despite his efforts however, his knees buckled and he slid back down to the ground, panting. "Agh…fuck…."

"Oh Gray!" Juvia managed to reach him just in time, when she tried to catch him instead she just slid down the wall with him awkwardly. "What in the hell happened?!" she demanded, her voice cracking.

Gray, slumped back against the wall, tried to give her that same lazy smile he'd given her that morning, but his face was far too pale for Juvia to take any comfort in it.

"Ah…Lyon…jumped me…bastard…."

"Let me see."

Gray's dark eyes were bright, yet seemed to fade with a feverish thirst. Then, wordlessly, he lifted his hand away from his side, his palm coated in blood.

Juvia swore.

"Coulda been…worse…" Gray tried to point out, but the clamminess of his skin didn't back him up all that well. "I mean…it's not deep…."

"Well either way, you're not getting any better here. Come on." Juvia made to take Gray underneath his arm and help him up.

She stopped mid-lift when Gray gasped in pain.

"Gray…." Juvia didn't think it was possible for her heart to ache as much as it did now.

Gray caught her eye and looked inexplicably apologetic. "I'm sorry…I didn't want…you to get…involved…." His voice broke off into a groan of pain, his breathing ragged and shallow. He was whiter than snow, if that were possible.

Juvia's throat closed up, but she swallowed hard and managed to say, "It's fine. I can take care of myself."

"I know…but I…I mean…still don't…wanna see you…hurt…." Gray panted, his chest rising and falling rapidly. But still he tried to smile at her at the same time. "I don't…want anything…bad…to happen to you…."

Biting her lip, eyes filling, Juvia squared her shoulders. "Well, right now, you're the one who's hurt, so let me help you."

Gray huffed a sort of laugh, even as he wheezed in pain again. "Okay. C'mon then…help me up…."

Juvia nodded and lifted Gray up underneath his arm. Her knees gave for a moment as his weight sagged against her, but she rallied and managed to heave him up, bracing his arm around her shoulders, wrapping her other arm around his waist.

"Do you know…where we're going…?" Gray managed to ask.

"The E.R. on the corner." Juvia gave him a sidelong glance and then looked ahead again. "I'm guessing you knew it was there?"

"Yeah I…knew it was somewhere around here…agh…guess you saw it…while you were out…?"

"Luckily. Because I'm also guessing you'd rather an ambulance weren't involved in all this?"

"Well it…helps to keep a low profile…heh…but…how'd you…?"

"I've been there," Juvia admitted darkly.

"I see…" said Gray, and Juvia swallowed another lump in her throat, as she felt something like thread weave through her heart and then stitch it together with…his.

If she could keep it beating.

Like hell she'd have it otherwise.

Gray was a bit apprehensive of the doctor who ended up attending him after he came out of the OR. He hadn't required major surgery, but his situation still had to be handled beneath the glare of a surgery light, a group of masked surgeons surrounding him as they stopped the bleeding, examined the depth and severity of the damage caused by the wound, and then patched him back up. Basically, there just wasn't any fuss with putting him under anesthesia.

At the very least though they did give him painkillers while they poked into him.

He was a bit apprehensive though of the doctor who came in after to examine his stitches because of how young she looked. She seemed scarcely out of college, never mind her having graduated with a medical doctorate.

She even wore her blue hair in pigtails, which only served to make her seem even younger.

Just the same, she quickly proved her competence with her very no-nonsense, clinical approach.

"Dr. Wendy Marvell," she introduced herself, her hands in the pocket of her while lab coat. "We get a little stab wound, did we, Mr. Fullbuster?"

"Um, yeah. Somethin' like that," Gray answered warily, as he laid back on the surgery table, bare-chested, propping himself up on his elbows.

He hated having to have to come here. Of course he did have to, otherwise he'd have died for sure, but still, hospitals meant paperwork and nosy questions. And, on occasion, a headache for Erza.

For instance, in the aftermath of dealing with the Lullaby gang by going undercover with Natsu under Erza's request, Gray and Natsu both had come out with more than a few bloody scrapes. Even though they hadn't required even minor surgery, they still had to get treated at a clinic, and they'd still had to answer questions for the record and deal with the paperwork for administration and billing, and Erza still had to oversee the whole thing. Not that she was unhappy to do it, she cared about them the way any big sister would, and wanted to make sure they were okay, but even so, being in a hospital was just exhausting. Gray was more than well-acquainted with that fact.

And this fatigue showed on the face of Dr. Wendy Marvell, which further served to instill a little more confidence in her. Because it wasn't the sort of fatigue where she looked too tired to do her job, or even too jaded to come off as entirely heartless. More it was that she looked like she possessed a heart worn by what she had seen, but even so, persevered.

Gray admired that in people. Again, there was something about Juvia that was like that too.

"Any pain?" Dr. Marvell asked as she picked up his chart and skimmed over it.

"Nah," he lied, but Marvell raised her eyebrows when his breath hitched at the slight twinge his newly sewn-up wound gave him as the painkillers from the surgery were starting to wear off.

"Here," said Marvell, but she didn't sound entirely annoyed or impatient with him. More like a parent saying, "Oh you kids."

She snapped on a set of gloves and prepared a syringe of more painkillers and injected it into his arm. Gray hissed as the needle penetrated his skin, which was a little lame considering, but just the same.

After she disposed of the needle and the gloves, she told him to come back right away if he started to bleed at all. However, when she assessed his stiches for herself, she did seem satisfied that that wasn't likely. And she told him that the additional dose of painkillers she had just injected him with would help with that. In which case she also wrote up a scrip for some narcotic pills that would help him if the pain got bad again while he was at home, advising him to also come back in right away if after the cycle of treatment he was still experiencing pain. That, and he should also come back right away if there was any redness, swelling, or weeping.

Not that Gray didn't already know all of this, but he nodded for her benefit. He thanked her as she handed him the folded prescription and he tucked into his jeans pocket.

After that, now came the part where Marvell would get into how important it was not to get himself involved in knife fights and other forms of street violence and to call 911 the next time he was faced with that kind of danger out there.

Only she didn't do that.

At first, Gray was hesitant to ask why, but Marvell seemed to anticipate this, actually, as she said:

"And don't worry about me grilling you about the circumstances of your injury. I got a call from Chief Scarlet. We've made what you call a kind of…arrangement."

"Oh."

"Nothing involving money either, so no need to feel bad about it either."

And for the first time since first introducing herself, Marvell's mouth quirked just slightly into a small smile.

A smile which Gray returned, silently thanking Erza for thinking of everything, as always.

While Marvell went and entered a few things into the nearby computer, Gray ran his hand over the new bandages on his wound again, oddly comforted by the faint pulsing throb he felt underneath. Not one that hurt, just one that reminded him that he was still alive.

Soon, there'd be nothing but a scar—to add to his collection. At least it didn't feel like he was getting stabbed again every time he took a breath.

Then he heard a gasp from the open door.

Gray looked up and saw Juvia standing there with a nurse who had clearly gone to fetch her. Without taking her eyes off of him, Juvia handed the nurse the empty paper cup of what Gray assumed had been filled with some sort of comforting hot drink that she must've nervously sipped on while sitting out there waiting to hear about his condition.

Apart from the gasp though, when she stepped the room, the nurse stepping in discreetly behind her and going over to speak to Dr. Marvell in a hushed voice, Juvia approached Gray with a more professional sort of air, and huffed much like how Marvell had, and she actually did shake her head. Gray noticed too that over her other arm she was carrying both his shirt and his shoulder holster with his gun in it, his bloody muscle tank having been stripped off and discarded.

"Well, seems you're still alive. Not that I didn't think you wouldn't be, once we got you here. They give you a transfusion too?"

"Somewhere in there," he answered, as she clearly noticed that he was no longer alarmingly white.

Yeah, this girl definitely knew a thing or two about scrapes with death. She hadn't even flinched at the sight of his wound, though her face had pinched with pained concern as she'd breathed out, "Fuck."

After the gun, and everything else, he found himself wanting more and more to…well…shield her, actually. Stupid and cliché as that was, it was something he genuinely felt for her. He couldn't remember the last time—if ever—he had felt a protective urge like this this strongly.

"Hey," he said, his voice sounding like a deflating balloon.

Just great.

And then Juvia rolled her eyes, let out a breath and shook her head. And when Marvell and the nurse turned from the computer to address her, she said, "Thank you for your help."

"Of course," said Marvell crisply. "If you'll excuse us, we'll just fetch Mr. Fullbuster's paperwork then?" And she and the nurse stepped from the room. Gray wondered a little anxiously if they thought that Juvia was his girlfriend and they were also doing the courtesy of giving them a moment alone.

Which, in spite of himself, the moment it was just the two of them, Gray avoided looking at her.

But Juvia gave another sigh and came a little closer. "Oh Gray…look at you," she said as she laid his shirt and shoulder holster with his gun over the back of a chair, giving him more of a glimpse of how worried she really had been, experience with guns and death be damned.

Which made Gray raise his eyes again. "What…you mean my lovely little scars all over me?"

Juvia's eyes slid over his chest and toned stomach, as if tracing the thread of all those white pale scars, trying to read the stories in them. Then her eyes alighted on the glittering cross around his neck…his father's cross.

Suddenly self-conscious again, Gray finally decided to try and push himself up into a sitting position, though not without a little smarting protest from his wound, the additional does of painkillers still not having quite kicked in yet.

"Gray…."

"I'm fine…."

Juvia withdrew, and Gray immediately regretted sounding harsher than he meant to.

He tried to smooth it over.

"Sorry," he muttered.

But then Juvia took a step toward him again. "Gray, I…."

Gray met her eyes, and she seemed lost for words. A spark passed between them, the same spark that hard arced between them when Gray watched her sing.

"Thank you," he finally said, voice hoarse. "For helping me out. I mean…if you hadn't been there…I…." He heaved a sigh. Why did he have to suck at this?

He tried again.

"Sorry to scare ya," Gray told her softly. "I'll try not to do it so much."

Juvia took yet another step, and now he could smell her soft rainy scent. Gray's first instinct was to draw away, just out of habit, but something about Juvia, that light in her eyes, like jewel-bright sunlight in the ocean, kept him close. Drew him in even, the way she kept drawing him in, over and over…like the pull of the ebbing tide on the shore.

His eyes dropped briefly on the look of her breasts nestled in her dress, and that spark was stoked, a strong flame slowly devouring him from within and threatening to consume him. A fire that took a hold of him in his chest and in his groin.

He swallowed as he lifted his eyes to hers again, finding it was getting a little harder to breathe again…and he became aware of the way Juvia was breathing too.

Timidly at first, but then with a little more self-assurance, as if she felt she needed to be careful, she reached out and laid her fingertips on his chest, right where his heart was beating…faster.

Without really thinking about it, and just doing it because he wanted to, he reached up and laid his hand over the hand she had splayed over his skin, and there was a sweet and glittering longing in her eyes that could only be described as…magic.

He smiled lazily at her again. It was the first time anyone had ever made him smile like that, like he felt suave and shy and the same time.

"C'm'ere," he invited.

And come she did, as if he'd cast a spell of entrancement on her. She leaned in…and the rain came with her…a sudden fall of rain upon the cracked soil of the ailing, arid desert.

Their lips met, brushing against each other at first, like before, but this time, they came back together. They each of them tested the waters, and Gray's chest got hotter, and he leaned into the kiss, and Juvia did the same. He felt the small hand she had on his chest and her other hand both gently slide around his waist as she pulled closer to him and he shivered.

And he returned her embrace, slipping his arms around her and holding her at the small of her back, and he kissed her again, drinking her like a man dying of thirst. She smelled so wonderful, like her smell of rain and softness. Like rain after a drought…the touches of her skin, fluttering and hesitant as they were at first, were a sweet balm to how much he hurt on the outside and the inside.

They kissed, again and again, rough as the seas, yet at the same time fiercely gentle. Gray even growled a little in his throat, as something as primal yet beautiful as the need to make beautiful love to a beautiful woman and make her feel loved flooded and overwhelmed his heart.

Then she pressed herself up against him, as she responded favorably, gleefully even, to the kisses he was sharing with her, and drew him into her for more, more, more, their warm breaths in between growing ever more shallow and desperate.

Gray's hands wandered up her back, holding her even closer, wanting to pull her inside of him. Riding the wave of desire, he wandered from her lips to her cheek, and then planted kisses along down to the hollow of her neck, feeling her jumping pulse, burrowing in the rain scent of her hair, her soft skin.

Juvia gave a small moan and arched her back slightly, pressing into him even more, clutching him more and more tightly, all while Gray's lips met the skin of her shoulder and the strap of her dress. Then he stopped, catching his breath as he touched his forehead to her collarbone. He felt her pause and catch her breath too, sliding her hands back up to his shoulders and wrapping them around the back of his neck instead, spearing her fingers through his dark hair, clutching him as if she longed to cradle him like that in her arms. This only increased his reinvigorated eagerness to take her into a bedroom, somewhere, anywhere, and see what other sounds he could get her to make.

His heart throbbed in his chest, and he could feel Juvia's heart throbbing too, and his mind fumbled with the ecstasy racing through it, and for the moment the only thing he could do with any coherence was hold Juvia even closer to him, hold her as close to him as he possibly could.

After years of sailing through icy, stormy seas, the waters had calmed beneath the sun, and he had drifted into a place he could truly call a safe harbor. He knew that now.

"Gray?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you…? I mean…." Juvia raised her head and relaxed her arms around him slightly, pulling back to look at him.

Gray followed her lead and did the same, and the two fixed each other with each other's eyes.

Juvia reached up and brushed her fingertips along the line of Gray's cheek, drifting down to trace the line of his jaw. Gray experienced an ache in his chest that Juvia's closeness appeared to remedy, and at the same time made the ache grow more painful.

"I…aw fuck…." Gray licked his lips, mouth dry.

This was a mistake.

He tugged away from her and looked away.

"Gray?"

"I can't…um…."

"You…don't want to…?"

"No…it's not that…."

Then Juvia reached out and cupped his face in one hand, coaxing him to look at her. It was hard to resist her as she idly ran the pad of her thumb over his cheekbone.

"What is it then?" she asked him, her blue eyes earnest.

Gray tried to explain. "It's just that…."

It's just that I have a habit of losing people who are important to me. The way I live, even now, could still get you killed. I know you can take care of yourself, but even so….

"I just can't…."

"Gray…."

Juvia leaned in close again, and he felt powerless to keep her from kissing him again.

"Ahem."

They both froze and then looked round to find Marvell back in the doorway with Gray's paperwork. She had a cross between an unimpressed and amused look on her face.

"Am I interrupting?" she asked ironically.

Gray and Juvia looked at each other and then withdrew from each other again, both of them looking away and going slightly red in the face. Gray, for his part, scratched nervously at his face with his finger.

The corner of Marvell's lip curled just a little. "You might wanna take it easy, Mr. Fullbuster. Your stiches haven't been in for very long."

"Yeah, sure."

"I have your paperwork here." Marvell waved the folder in her hands and then laid it on the table near the door. "Both of you, I hope you have a pleasant rest of your evening, and again, anything happens, don't hesitate to check back in. If you'll excuse me. It was good to meet you." And with a flip of her blue hair she disappeared back into the corridor.

Gray slid off the operating table and grabbed his shoulder holster with his gun in it and strapped it back on, and then pulled on his shirt, leaving it unbuttoned. His and Juvia's eyes met again, and he wished he could say something, anything, so she'd know that it wasn't that he didn't want to be with her, that it was just….

"Shit…." Gray sighed. "Come on," he grunted, feeling for his new cigarettes to make sure they were still in his shirt pocket. "We should head back."

"Back?"

"Home."

"Home…."

Realizing the implications of what he'd said, he cleared his throat and clarified, "To the duplex."

"Oh." Juvia turned crestfallen, aware that he had no intention of them sleeping in the same half of the house.

It was then that outside, the air rumbled with an impetus of thunder, followed by a torrent of pouring rain.