Chapter Eight

A Piacere

Unfortunately, before either of them could say another word, there came a loud pounding on the front door, and Natsu's pissed off voice calling through the woodwork.

"Gray, ya sonofabitch! You wanna come out here and explain yourself?! And I know you're in there, so don't pretend you're still hurt so bad you can't come to the damn door!"

Gray stiffened again, and then let out a snort of laughter, facepalming and then running a hand through his hair as Juvia pulled back to look at him.

"Gray?"

"Yeah I uh…well, I had to tell Natsu that I couldn't come into the shop today—obviously—so I shot him a text…. I was starting to wonder why he hadn't replied. But then…I was kind of expecting he'd react like this. Call it 'tough love'."

"Tough love…."

Gray sighed and made a kind of groaning sound one makes before forcing themselves to do something very unpleasant.

"GRAY!"

"Oh, for cryin' out loud! Fuck, I need a cigarette…."

He scooted off of where he still straddled Juvia's pelvic region, carefully extricating himself from her, zipping up and rebuttoning his jeans on his way to the door. The moment he opened it though, the first thing that crossed the threshold was a fist into his jaw just as Juvia was sitting up on the couch and yanking her yoga pants back up to her hips.

"Gray!" she exclaimed, clutching her shirt to her chest.

Gray fell back, clutching his jaw, and Natsu stepped inside, raising his fist to deliver another punch—yet he didn't.

The fury in his face though was another matter. Juvia half-expected him to start breathing fire like a dragon.

"You idiot!" he shrieked at Gray. "What're you goin' around gettin' stabbed for?!"

"I didn't do it on purpose," Gray groused, rubbing his jaw as he managed to straighten himself up. "Just happened."

"C'mon on now, one punch is punishment enough," said another voice, and then Erza poked her head in after Natsu, long red hair done up in a bun: she had a smile on her face that seemed torn between siding with Natsu and sympathizing with Gray's plight.

Natsu growled, glancing over his shoulder at the chief of the seventh precinct, but lowered his fist nonetheless and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "You had us worried sick man," he grumbled. "And you tried to act like it wasn't a big deal. What're we supposed to think when you shoot me a text that says, 'got stabbed last night, need a day to recover, thanks'." When he opened his eyes again he cast another searing glare at Gray.

Gray glared right back, but there was contrition on in his face too. And then he looked away. "I'm sorry. You can get that Romeo kid in to help today though, can't ya?"

"That's not the point!" Natsu snapped and Gray actually flinched. "Why'd you try taking this guy alone? It was that white-haired dick from the other night, right?"

"Look, he came after me outta nowhere!"

"But you had a feeling he'd come after you, didn't you? And you didn't think about that when you decided to head out alone in the middle of the night?"

"I can take care of myself, Natsu. Don't you think you're overreacting?"

Natsu took another deep breath and finally relaxed completely, all aggression and anger gone. He even looked a bit sheepish over how he'd acted. "I know, man. I mean…I know you couldn't really help it, he ambushed ya and all…but…I just. Sometimes you forget that you got people who got your back. And stuff like this happens because of that."

Erza said nothing, but simply leaned against the edge of the door with her arms folded, shaking her head. It was clear to Juvia who the adult was in this trio of allied forces against the criminal underbelly.

Gray meanwhile grumbled and rubbed the back of his neck. "I know I do. I'm tryin' not to do so much on my own anymore, you know that, right?"

"Yeah. I mean, you've got Mirajane as well as Erza both keepin' an eye out for this guy—" ("Gee, thanks for including me," Erza inserted sarcastically.) "—so…guess I'm bein' kinda unfair. Where is the little fucker anyway?"

"No clue. It was…kinda bloody on both sides. I didn't kill him, but he wasn't exactly in the best shape when I left him."

"And Dr. Marvell took care of you, I'm assuming?" Erza asked, raising a stern eyebrow, clearly adopting her "serious mode", prompted no doubt by the fact that Gray and Lyon's confrontation could have very well ended with one of them dead, if not both. Given what Juvia had heard and learned thus far, she had to assume that when it came to Erza sending her two under-the-table attack dogs out on off-the-record assignments for the police, she had to not only play things very close to the chest, but had to accept the fact that regardless of her intentions, if any one higher up found out she did that sort of thing they'd have plenty of reason to charge her with the corruption that came with most cops that worked outside the law. (You know, the sort of thing that ought to happen to cops that don't play by the rules in action movies.)

Meanwhile, Gray went on. "Anyway, I'm bettin' he's managed to find cover somewhere. Lucky for me on my end though, I had a little help."

And he jerked his head in Juvia's direction, where she still sat on the edge of the sofa watching the proceedings. Maybe that was really why Natsu (and probably Erza too) was angry, because he hadn't said anything until this morning.

Natsu, for his part, blinked before he exchanged a look with Erza, and then then the both of them got a smile on each of their faces, both of which were far too knowing and sly for Juvia's liking. Their eyes both drifted to the sofa at the same time, the cushions of which did look oddly disturbed, and then back up to Juvia who had yet to throw her shirt back on over her bra, and then finally slid back onto Gray and how he was still very much shirtless.

"Oh. I get it." Natsu coughed a snort of puckish laughter into his fist.

Gray's expression went slack as he seemed to realize what his friends were putting together, and then he knitted his brow. "No, you get nothing."

But Natsu shook his head, chortling. "No, no, you're right, I'm sorry, I'll just…leave everything to my imagination. Right Erza?"

"Oh indeed," Erza agreed, before she gave Juvia a mischievous wink, which made Juvia uncharacteristically hot in the face and she hastily went about yanking her shirt back on.

But then she saw Natsu raise his eyebrows suggestively at Gray before he added to her, "Thanks for takin' care of my pal Gray, here. God knows he needs it." And then he winked too.

"Okay, you've made your point," Gray growled, grabbing the edge of the open door.

"Nah-ah, I totally get it. You enjoy your 'day off', Gray…. Oh but first—"

And before Gray could stop him, Natsu yanked Gray out onto the porch.

"Sorry, Juvia, gotta talk business with Gray for a sec," Erza informed Juiva. "Then you can have him back." And grinned at her again, this time in a way that made Juvia wonder if her boyfriend Jellal (whom she still had yet to meet) had a thing for women whose sexy smile was at the same time a little frightening.

Finally alone, Juvia's shoulders relaxed and she deflated with a sigh, burying her now flushed face in her hands and shaking her head with a prolonged groan of embarrassment.

"Fuck man, at least let me get my cigarettes first!" Gray snapped at both Natsu and Erza once the door shut behind them.

Something which Natsu obliged, silently offering his friend a cigarette from his own pack.

Gray flicked another glare at him before sliding a cigarette out and letting Erza light it for him while Natsu lit up one of his own.

"So," Erza started, lighting up her own cigarette in turn, "here's what's going on. So, I think it's no secret that underneath all this bright and sunny Magnolia has an undercurrent of drugs flooding the streets."

"Yeah, go on," said Gray, sobering up himself.

After all, the hairs on the back of his neck always stood on end, like hackles raising on a wolf, whenever the subject of people dying from drug overdosing came up. After seeing what Lyon had become joining up with Lamia Scale and dealing drugs with them, not to mention the Deliora gang's affinity for trafficking kilos upon kilos of cocaine, it was easy to see how he had little mercy to give to anyone associated with those who profited from the misery that came with dealing in lethal illegal drugs.

"Last couple of weeks," Erza went on, "there's been an uptick of cases of people OD-ing, and not only that, but on something entirely new. This cocktail they're calling 'Siegrain'."

Gray and Natsu paused with their cigarettes halfway to their mouths and looked at each other, and then back at Erza.

"Siegrain?"

"An opioid cut together with a form of LSD. Supposed to send you on a dreamy high. You transcend reality and feel no fear doing so. However, its side effects are proving disturbing. Not just people dying or committing crimes under the influence, but general agitations of some people's psychoses." Erza took another drag on her cigarette, and her expression closed for a moment, no doubt thinking of Jellal and how he struggled still with his PTSD.

Which prompted Gray to ask, if carefully, "Are these…like what Jellal seems to be going through, Erza?"

Erza glanced up at them both, eyes sharp again, though not angry. Steeled rather. "Yes. I think…somehow…he might be taking it. I've…asked him about it, and…he denies it and…I haven't managed to find any around our house but…if this keeps going on…." Then she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't wanna send him back to the hospital. He hates it there. He knows he needs to go if his mental health is in jeopardy, but he hates being away. And worse, if I end up having to arrest him and put him in jail…." She heaved a huge sigh and took another feverish sip of her cigarette, hastily tapping ash off the end of it.

"Don't worry Erza, we'll figure this out," said Natsu at once, with his usual confidence and optimism. "Where do you think the scum are dealing? And who? Is it Phantom Lord? Lamia Scale?"

Gray said nothing, but he was very grave as he silently went on smoking his own cigarette.

But then Erza said, "Neither," strangely to Gray's relief.

"So who?"

"Looks like Grimoire Heart. At some of the scenes where we find an overdose victim in their home, we find dust residue of what at first we thought was coke, but turned out to be the sort of candy used to make candy hearts. So we're going on that for now. We have it on record that Grimoire Heart tends to traffic their drugs in candy heart boxes."

Gray's ears pricked up more, and he exhaled a cloud of smoke. "I know that name, Grimoire Heart."

Natsu and Erza looked at him.

"Lyon…mentioned them," Gray explained, dropping his gaze to the porch.

"You think he can tell you anything?" Erza asked. Then shook her head. "No wait, you said you didn't know where he is, if he's even alive. Sorry."

"We can still look into it," Gray offered, flicking more ash away. "There's another bar I know—bit of a dive—and we can see what we can dig up there. Place called The Honey Bone."

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" Natsu was incredulous.

"Yeah," said Gray, "deceiving name, I know."

"Okay, sounds good," said Erza, running the pad of her thumb over a crease in her forehead, her smoldering cigarette held aloft. "I've got Simon and Millianna working on this from my squad at the station. But if you guys can dig up where this stuff's getting in, we can take it from there. I ain't got time for a search warrant on this."

And despite the desperation underneath her voice, there was new hope and determination shining in her eyes.

"All right." Gray finished and then ground out his cigarette against the brick wall of the house. "We can start at Honey Bone and go from there. Sound good?" He glanced at Natsu.

Natsu sighed but then finished his own cigarette and also ground it out in the same way Gray had ground out his. "Sure. I'll get the shop closed up early today and come back here to pick you up at say…three?"

"Yeah. I'll be here."

At which Natsu and Erza shared another impish pair of grins, remembering who was waiting for Gray inside his half of the duplex.

Taking note of this, Gray groaned and yanked the front door open. "Cut it out, it's not what you think," he insisted, before shutting the door in their rather amused faces. Though, if he was being honest with himself, Gray was relieved that even at this point, Erza could still manage to crack a genuine smile at all, never mind that it was at his own expense.

Juvia had decided since she was here, in a house stocked with food, to cook the two of them breakfast while she waited for Gray to come back. With her caught in limbo between leaving and not leaving, there was still very much the possibility that this would be her last day she could be with Gray. So, if that was to be the case, she wanted to at the very least to get everything she could out of it, which included being able to cook something for the two of them.

She'd made them both very delicious-looking, mouthwatering cheese, ham, and green and red pepper omelets when she heard the front door shut as Gray came back inside.

"Damn it," he grumbled, but then he threw a smile at Juvia poking her head out the kitchen door. "See what I mean? Tough love. Guy can't just say, 'I was worried about ya', he's gotta hit ya first to show he cares."

"Hm, what a charming trait of toxic masculinity," Juvia observed, folding her arms underneath her breasts. But she couldn't help a smile. Until she noted the air of gravitas clinging to Gray. "Everything okay?" She chewed her lip, guessing that whatever he, Gray, and Erza had had to talk about privately out there on the porch had been heavy.

"Yeah. I mean…they're both like this every time I get hurt." Gray shook his head and then pushed away from the door, straightening back up again.

Juvia was just a little crestfallen that it appeared he had no intention of sharing with her what he and the other two had discussed, but then she supposed that if it was private business, it wasn't her place to butt in. That and well…if she wasn't going to be sticking around….

"But then," Gray went on, "I'm kinda the same when it's the other way around. When any of us at Fairy Tail get hurt. I mean…we're family, after all."

At this, Juvia had the kind of crashing ache in her head of hangover regret, as she remembered her reasons once again for why she was planning to defy Jose and abandon her mission, her reason for being here.

The way she turned melancholy didn't run past Gray, and he lost his smile, coming over to cup her face in one hand and get her to look at him. A thrill lanced through Juvia before she could think, the way he reached out to her like this. Her heart started drumming in her chest again, refueling her desire for him, in spite of Natsu's interruption.

"Hey," he said softly, "what's the matter?"

Juvia closed her eyes and came right out with it. After what had passed between them, her soul was getting worn down, it got harder to maintain her outward appearance of having her shit together.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. "I've never had a family before."

Gray sighed, but then he said, "I know."

Juvia's eyes flew open and she stared at him. "How could you…?"

"Tell?" Gray smiled again, but this time it was wistful, understanding. "Cuz you remind me of me…when I was little…and lost. When I was with Ur and Lyon…I didn't realize until it was too late that I'd found a family again…I was so focused on avenging my parents…so…I tried not to make that same mistake. And I've found my place with everyone who drinks at Fairy Tail for it."

Juvia's eyes prickled, but she was unable to speak.

Gray ran the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone. "You could be part of that too. If you…wanted to. I…really would like that."

So, they were back to before, when he'd told her that he didn't want her to go. It took her saying that she was going to have to leave to get him to admit this, but just the same….

Then Gray sniffed. "Hey, ah…what smells so good?" he asked, as if he were sensing how much he was pushing her toward something she didn't want to talk about.

"Oh…I uh…I made omelets."

"Ah…well, I was gettin' kinda hungry."

The omelet she had tasted like heaven, if Juvia did say so herself, though she was modest of course and so didn't say anything of the sort. Actually more delightful was the way Gray ate his omelet up like it was the first decent meal he'd had in days.

That and it was a joy to have this chance, for once, to have had a man, and then to get up and make him breakfast instead of simply grabbing her clothes, her shoes, and her gun and leaving behind a corpse for someone else to find later. No, this one was alive and breathing and beautiful, and she was quite committed to keeping it that way.

Moreover, to never be a source of pain for him.

On top of that, an easy normality settled between them, just being able to talk to each other about books and movies and other trivial things that were no less precious just for how delightfully normal those pleasurable things were. Before there had been the haze of alcohol and cigarette smoke, but here, it was like when they first met, in the sunshine, and she'd thought he was the handsomest man she had ever seen in her life.

She even managed to forget the Sword of Damocles that was Jose for a little while.

"Hey? Are you all right?" Gray asked her.

Juvia looked up from where she'd started absently chasing dregs of egg white around the rim of her empty plate with her fork, and when their eyes met, she had this thrilling sense, just for a moment, of a foundation of intimacy now built between them, soft and quiet. As if this had been their lives for some time now.

Holding onto this, she managed a smile. "Yeah. I'm fine."

And then he held out his hand to her across the table. She considered it a moment, and then took it in her own smaller one. Whereupon he drew them both their feet, and she felt herself float up to him as he did so. He tugged her close and touched his cheek to hers, whispering in her ear:

"Wanna see my bedroom?"

She sucked in a gentle breath, before she let out a giggle at the way he sounded like a horny teenager.

"Okay," she whispered back, basking in his warmth, bathing in his sunlight.

Gray led Juvia up into his bedroom, even as he was still a bit chagrined about what he'd said earlier concerning condoms.

Way to ruin the mood, he'd chastised himself.

Worse still, it had forced Juvia to admit to having a sterilization surgery that she clearly hadn't wanted personally. No doubt Mr. Lamborghini had forced it on her for whatever reason.

Just the same, he managed to roll with it when Juvia kissed him again after he'd shut his door behind them. He was clean, she was clean. Anyone with common sense would argue that they shouldn't take words like "I don't have an STD, trust me" at face value, and yet….

Juvia pushed that all out of his mind along, again, with having to leave her to meet up later with Natsu, all with what seemed like a determination to toss away all good sense and simply enjoy his body as much as she could, and at the same time, invite him to enjoy hers just as much.

Which he wanted very much to do. Immensely.

He'd been with plenty of beautiful women, they both knew that, and he was aware she'd been with many men…but there was something about her….

Like how she could handle herself in a gun stand-off, and yet her hands were so adorably small. Beneath the confident, sultry jazz singer who kept a gun strapped to her thigh just in case she had to protect herself, there was a smart but also tentative person, who in many ways seemed lost the way a child seemed lost.

The way he was lost.

When she smiled though, Gray got that same feeling as he might waking up on a beach at sunrise after a fight, bloody but alive for another day. It hurt, but it was a good kind of hurt, the kind that reminded you were still breathing.

Gray did his best to take his time this go around, snaking his hands up her music note t-shirt and wrapping his arms around her, letting his fingers luxuriate in the warmth of her skin as he pulled her close. She meanwhile leaned up and sort of nuzzled him, coaxed him into nuzzling her back. Seemed she wanted to take things slow too, get to know him better as she slid her arms around him in turn.

It was utterly sweet, a descriptor Gray had never imagined he'd ever be associated with. But there it was, and it was doing something to the heart beating faster in his chest. He touched his lips to her neck and then her cheek, tasting her skin again, his arousal building again. Sea salt. He'd never tasted anything like it until her.

Was it because she'd cried a lot?

He just had this feeling, given the way she described her life. There was an emptiness in her, as much as there was in him, and his desperation to both fill her and be filled was rising again. He did his best to temper it, to savor every kiss he laid on her, from her cheek to her brow, to each of her closed eyelids, to the tip of her freckled nose, before at long last reaching her lips.

The moment he did though, it was like a match strike between them, sparks flying. She responded enthusiastically to him, and his breath quickened as he opened his mouth for her, begging her to come to him.

Then his hands found the clasp of her bra and he started to undo it. The moment he felt it fall free he hooked his fingers under that and made a bid to tug both bra and shirt off of her. She accommodated him by releasing him and lifting her arms up in the air.

She giggled when he got her topless again, this time her breasts laid bare, possibly because of the way he stared at her for a moment.

Her breasts were small too, like her hands, but Gray preferred that, at least to the huge knockers that were always so hyped up. On Juvia, it just underlined how both adorable and sexy she was, as those breasts were a case for her wonderful curves.

His arousal stoked anew, he smiled, rather slyly, and pulled her back into his arms. They kissed again, Juvia giving a little moan to which Gray moaned in response. But then he pulled away from her lips and started trailing kisses down to the line of her jaw, and then her throat, her collarbone, and then down to the slope of her left breast, where he could just detect her pounding heart.

And Juvia clearly enjoyed the lazy way he worked down to one of her nipples and tenderly sucked, seeing as how she, with her arms wrapped around him again, speared her fingers through his dark hair as she pressed him closer, urging him on as he laid kisses there and then in between her breasts, relishing her warmth.

Like before when they'd had each other, he smelled that scent of the lavender soap on her that she must've used in the shower that morning, that still clung to her, and, eagerly, he made his way back up to her collarbone, her neck, her mouth, his feet meanwhile shuffling backward until they reached the bed, where he abruptly spun her around with a growl that made her squeal with delight. He threw her onto the unmade mattress before lowering himself down after her, and he growled again as he slowly crawled up to her like a predator stalking its prey, something that lit a bright lust in Juvia's blue eyes.

And then he dipped into the hollow of her shoulder and actually gave her a little bite, nipping her neck with his teeth, making her breathless with her desire. Oh, he liked that very much.

God, she was just so much fun. She excited him so much, he suddenly couldn't imagine doing something like this with any other woman ever again. The first time had been hot enough, but going with her again like this…it was a bliss he never wanted to break away from.

He shivered pleasurably when he felt her hands underneath his shirt, pulling it off him again, muscles tightening, breath quicker and even more shallow. He felt her fling his shirt away somewhere he didn't much care, nor did she. He was way too hungry for her, nipping her until he reached her jaw where he switched back to kissing her, and the heat of excitement inside him jolted when he felt her give his shoulder a few little bites of her own.

Then Gray explored her body further with his hands, stroking her curves with his fingers until they came down to the top of her yoga pants. He hooked his fingers over the top of those like before and started to pull down again, when Juvia, meeting his kissing mouth again, went, "Mm-hm!" and then with a surprising amount of strength, flipped them both over so that she now had him pinned to the bed.

"My turn to be on top," she insisted, breathless. "It's the rules," she added with a mischievous glint in her eyes that sent another thrill of excitement through Gray.

And the breathlessness of her voice urged his arousal on, but holy fuck, was his erection pressing hard against the inside of his jeans, just like before.

"Is that…so?" he challenged, panting to catch his breath. He returned her sly smile with a smirk of his own.

"Yes…so now you may proceed to strip me again."

"Mmmm…."

And as he did, with a bit of shifting from Juvia, she grabbed a hold of his crotch before she finally offered the relief of unzipping him. And then she guided him back inside of her—he wasn't used to being underneath.

Not that he was going to complain about it in this instance: the moment she started rocking her hips in a slow, gentle rhythm, he was no longer fumbling toward ecstasy, but he could see it clearly up ahead…and he could just reach it….

"Sorry," he gasped hoarsely, "I'm…gettin' close…again…."

"It's okay," she bit out, bending over him and kissing his neck, his jaw. And then she whispered, "I am too," in his ear, and then took his lips in hers.

Gray moaned again and wrapped his arms around her, feeling her soft skin, pulling her closer into him, barely containing himself as he bucked beneath her beautifully undulating hips.

His shallow breathing got harsher, as he tried so hard not to get ahead of her…but it built, and built, and built, and built…and before he could stop it, the fire consumed him, bursting from where they were joined and spreading through his entire body, electrifying his veins as he cried out and clutched Juvia like his life depended on it.

But he was rewarded twofold as she soon let out the sweetest cry he had ever heard in his life, and tears sprang to his eyes and he crushed her to him in his arms while riding her high out with her.

And then she relaxed and stilled, as did he, and for a moment, in the wake of such shattering bliss, they simply held each other, panting heavily, tangled up in each other and the sheets. The air was thick with sweat and sex and that fragrance of sea salt, and Gray's heart was still pounding in his chest and in his ears even as it was slowing down and he was catching his breath.

Then he let his head fall back on the pillow and she lifted herself up onto her forearms so they could look at each other. And there was little he could do to hold back the grin that spread on his face. That beautiful moment of knowing that your lust has been slaked.

For now, anyway.

"How was that?" Juvia asked him breathlessly. "Good? Bad? Better…? Worse…?"

"No. Best," Gray told her sincerely, idly running his hands along the curves of her naked hips.

And then another tension relaxed in Juvia that Gray hadn't noticed until just then, as she let out a huff, like a sigh of relief, and then slid off of him and rolled over onto her back beside him.

Gray turned onto his side, propping himself up on one elbow. When he tried to look at her, she tried to look away, and all of a sudden she was curiously distant and closed from him, like she'd washed out to sea and toward the horizon, where she was close to disappearing from him forever.

His eyes lingered on her face, traced along the perfect roundness of her breasts and all her other curves, his heart still eager even as it no longer pounded like thunder.

"You aren't really gonna go, are you?" he had to ask. He couldn't help it.

At this, she turned her face to look at him, and she suddenly looked so pale, so breakable. "Do you really want me stay? After you tried so hard to push me away?"

"Tried. And failed. And anyway, you did the same thing."

"I didn't want to."

"Neither did I."

She heaved a sigh and bit her lip, like she was worrying a thought in her mind. She was definitely afraid of something, something that made her feel like she had to leave.

Maybe she thought that guy she was trying to get away from, the guy who treated her like shit from the sound of it, would track her down here.

Well, if he did, he'd be sorry about it. Gray would make sure of that.

Before he could say as much though she reached up and took a hold of the cross around his neck, running the pad of her thumb over the metal of it. And then she let it drop and lifted her lovely eyes to his.

"How badly do you want me to stay?" she asked him. Almost like a challenge.

Well, he was up for this one.

"Really badly."

Okay, maybe not.

But then Juvia's lips spread into a gentle smile. "Show me," she coaxed him. Actually, it was more like she begged him. There was such a desperation underneath the reemerging lust in her voice.

Heat fluttered in Gray's chest again as he returned her smile with his own, and was very glad to show her just how much he wanted her to stay where his words failed him. He'd never been all that good with words, anyway. It was like she knew that.

Or she just needed to feel him again.

Not that he argued with that either.

He bent over her and took her mouth in his, crushing his lips against hers, and she started to open up for him once more, giving a surprised and pleased squeal at how fiercely he kissed her, how every touch from him was a plea for her not to leave him.

And with that they tumbled and twisted between the sheets for a third time.

When Gray woke up it was a little before two. He squinted at the sun through the blinds in his window, the fiery warmth on his face, and took a moment to put his foggy brain back together.

He hadn't been drunk. At least not on alcohol.

No, he'd found something sweeter.

Lying on his stomach and facing the wall, he heard a deep and soft sigh beside him, and the shift of another, smaller body in bed with him.

He smiled.

Juvia.

Turning over, he found her there, close beside him, curled up on her side, swathed in his sheets, filling them with her rain and sea salt scents. Just sleeping, her blue eyelashes sweet crescents over her cheekbones.

She really was very pale though.

It was a little worrying, actually.

But she breathed fine, easy. And otherwise she didn't seem ill.

Maybe it was just him.

Just the same, he also remembered with a pounding in his head that he'd have to leave her for a bit soon. And after the way he'd told her over and over between breathless kisses that he didn't want her to leave him.

He would be back, though. He'd come back for her, like nothing was wrong.

Because now he couldn't imagine ever not trying to find his way back to her.

He wanted to hear her sing again, hear her laugh, taste her, feel her, always.

What the hell's wrong with me? he suddenly thought in self-reprimand. This'll just open her up to getting her killed.

At the same time though, he was tired of suffering alone, and once more he told himself that this time, he'd fight whatever grudge Fate seemed to hold against him in snatching away those he loved and got too close to.

Loved?

Did he love her?

He wasn't entirely sure, but he knew he wanted to be with her, and he supposed that was a start.

Very gently and quietly so as not to wake her, he leaned over and kissed her cheek, and then her jaw and then her bare shoulder. And then he had to tear himself away, though he did so like he would do so slowly peeling off a band-aid—the kind of peel that tore off a few bits of skin in the process. Then he dragged himself away and forced himself up into a sitting position, swinging his legs over the side of the bed, sheets around his waist.

He took another look at her sleeping form before heaving another sigh, and then reached over and grabbed his clothes.

After he yanked on a muscle tank, he grabbed the pack of smokes by his bed, pulled one out with his teeth and lit it. He smoked it, freehanded, as he sat back on the edge of the bed and pulled on and laced up his boots. In the time it took to do that, he finished his cigarette and stubbed it out in the ashtray.

Then he ran a hand through his scruffy dark hair and glanced over at Juvia again, curling into herself a little more as she let out another little sigh in her slumber.

He couldn't help smiling, and he leaned over and kissed her cheek again, and this time whispered in her ear, "I'll be back. Wait up for me, baby."

The moment Juvia awoke to the slight chill, she knew she was alone in Gray's bed.

She was crestfallen at this for a twinkling, even as she hoped she was wrong and reached over. But only found a scrap of paper with a note scrawled onto it.

Be back later.

Well, at least he'd left with that.

Though she had to wonder where it is he might've gone. Hopefully nowhere dangerous.

In the meantime, she came to more of her senses as she slowly sat up, and gingerly at that, given how sore she was between her legs. Of course, he'd been as gentle as gentle could be when he'd managed it, but you could only do what they'd done so many times before it got rough on that part of the body regardless of how gentle you were being.

Actually, he'd been a beast in bed, but that had made everything so much more delicious.

Spearing her fingers through her tangled blue hair though, she came back again to her anxiety, and the slowly sinking sensation of knowing that the smart thing to do was to leave, get out, right now, while she still could and while Gray and everyone else at Fairy Tail was still safe. She hoped.

She considered Gray's note, pinching the small square of paper between her thumb and forefinger, before she laid it aside on the nightstand next to the digital clock that read "3:37 pm" and set about getting her clothes back on again. Then she started searching about for her phone out of habit, only then remembering with the sensation of a brick to the head that she'd launched her phone in the creek much earlier that morning.

That really was a stupid thing, but on the other hand, a very satisfying way to declare her severing her ties with Jose, at least from her point of view. She was well aware that Jose still felt she was leashed to him.

As she put her small naked fee to the floor and tried to think what to do immediately next, considering she wasn't supposed to show up at Fairy Tail until five for her singing act later that night, she heard the slam of a car door outside. Her ears pricked up, but she was very on guard as she quickly dressed and then padded downstairs.

Peering outside through the peep hole, she saw that not only was Gray's truck still parked in front near her own Lamborghini, but there was a third car parked there that she knew very well. Putting aside the theory that Natsu or perhaps Erza had probably swung by and picked up Gray in their own car to take him to wherever he'd gone off to, she tiptoed away from the front door and slipped out the back, slipping back into her own half of the duplex through her own back door where she could strap on her thigh holster and arm herself with her Sapphire after loading it with a full clip.

Before she went back outside then, she switched out her music note t-shirt for a blue dress that went just past her thighs (one she normally wore with leggings) as a means to hide the fact that she had a gun on her (though given who was outside, they more than likely wouldn't be fooled, but old habits and all that).

The moment she opened her own front door then and stepped out onto the porch, she easily screwed on a grin for the dandy in the fine camel suit smoking a cigarette as he leaned against his bronze station wagon, whereupon she greeted him as brightly as ever.

"Sol, darling! It's been far too long."