I felt obligated to write you guys a fight scene, but I should warn you: this is my greatest weakness. I suck at this stuff, so try not to hold it against me. You can skip it if you want.

I want to say thank you to all the people who reviewed last time. Your support was awesome, and it really helped me out. Love ya ;)

Today's chapter is both on time and long, so let's hear a massive round of applause for yours truly! Yeah, I know, I'm incredible. (No one needs to know this was mostly written today...)

I kinda struggled with the quote for this chapter, but we'll see. Maybe it fits, maybe it doesn't. I have more to say about that at the bottom.

As happens with a person who loves a thing too much, it destroys them. Oscar Wilde said, "You destroy the thing that you love." It's the other way around. What you love destroys you. - George Plimpton

They found the monster about half a mile from the coffee shop. It was sleeping in the middle of the sewer, blocking the flow of the waste. "What is it?" Juvia whispered, craning her neck. It was hard to tell, since it had curled itself into a tight ball.

"Whatever it is, that thing is big," Gray whispered back. "It's taking up the whole space." The sewer was a couple yards wide, and the murky water ran at least two and a half feet deep, but the monster filled the space easily, rising to brush the low ceiling. Suddenly, a deafening rumbling shook the tunnel. Juvia hunched her shoulders and screwed up her eyes until it faded away. Gray was staring at the sleeping creature. "I think it just snored," he said. Juvia took a step forward cautiously, listening. She could hear its breathing.

"What do you want to do about it?" she asked, turning back to meet Gray's eyes. "What's the plan?"

"It'll be easier to take down if it's asleep, so let's try an ambush. You go in from the side, attack its flank, and I'll go from the front. Okay?" Juvia nodded.

"Yes, Gray-sama!"

"Can't you…" Gray sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Ah, never mind. Let's just do it." Juvia shot a confused glance at his turned back before obediently moving to her assigned station.

"Ready?" Gray mouthed at her from his ice floe in the middle of the sewer. Juvia copied the action. He held up three fingers, counting down the seconds.

Three… Two… One.

Gray lunged, leaping off his platform and forming an enormous glittering lance. It landed on the monster's forehead, pointed edge gleaming murderously, and–

Bounced off.

The ice lance landed in the sewer with a splash and disappeared. Gray and Juvia stared at the monster. "What–"

A deafening roar drowned out whatever expletives might have been about to spew out of Gray's mouth, shaking the floor under Juvia's feet and almost reversing the flow of the sewage. The previous noise had been like the mewl of a kitten compared to the enraged bellow coming out of the monster's gaping maw.

Although, Juvia noted in a strange moment of detachedness, the monster had in fact a very small mouth for monster of that size.

"Juvia!" Gray shouted, back on his platform. "Get its attention! I'll try to get it from a blind spot!"

"Right!" Juvia called back, jerked back to reality. She sucked in a deep breath, thought for a moment, and then shrieked, "OVER HERE, MONSTER-CREATURE-THING! JUVIA IS OVER HERE! COME AND GET JUVIA, SMELLY UGLY SEWER-DWELLER!" The monster's head swiveled on its neck so fast Juvia pondered for a moment whether sewer monsters could get whiplash.

The monster was lion-shaped, with a long, sleek body and a feline head. However, its hide was made of some sort of dull black material, and it had no mane. Tiny golden eyes glowered at Juvia, and the small mouth was tightly shut. The monster growled experimentally at Juvia.

"Bad kitty," Juvia said automatically. The creature frowned at her, if enormous lion-things could frown. "Bad kitty," Juvia repeated. This time the monster snarled, revealing vicious yellow teeth and black gums.

It jerked suddenly, and Gray could be heard on the other side of it, cursing. "Goddamn it! Why the hell can't I stab this thing?" The monster twisted the other way to growl menacingly at Gray. It didn't have enough space to actually turn its body in the sewer, and it couldn't stand all the way up either. It took a snap at Gray's head, but he managed to dodge it and leapt onto the monster's side. Juvia was already running around to join him, hopping from the makeshift platform in the sewer to the maintenance path on the other side.

"Gray-sama!" she shouted. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine!" He didn't exactly look fine – he was struggling to keep his grip on the monster's smooth hide. "But we need a new plan. Trying to go through the outside isn't working." Juvia frowned. Where were they supposed to attack if striking the outside was useless?

The monster roared again, killing another thousand of Juvia's braincells. Gray had to resist the urge to clap his hands over his ears like a little kid. The inside of the monster's mouth was a mottled pink, a contrast to the black of its hide. Randomly, Juvia wondered if the different color meant that the inside of the mouth was made of something different than the outer coat.

She blinked. "Gray-sama! Juvia has an idea!" she yelled to Gray, who was clinging to the monster's side for dear life as it tried to throw him off.

"Well, hurry it up, then!" he replied distractedly. "Little busy here!"

"Juvia will get it to open its mouth, so attack there when Juvia says!" The water mage shot a jet of water at the monster's face before Gray could protest. It hit the beast square on the nose, more than a bit shooting up its left nostril. The monster snorted, shaking its head back and forth vigorously. Baleful eyes locked on Juvia's defiant figure and somehow, something managed to connect her to the water in the creature's minuscule brain. Disproportionately small jaws unlocked and another roar tore through the sewer, threatening to collapse the ceiling. As the monster's roar died out and it tried to close its maw, it found that it was unable to do so.

Water chains kept the monster's mouth wide open, exposing its weakness. Juvia grimaced as she fought the beast, trying to keep its mouth open as wide as possible. "Gray-sama, now!"

Gray scrambled along the monster's curved flank, his mind racing. What should he attack with? The lance hadn't worked. The hammer had just shattered like a glass vase dropped on a marble floor. No time left for thinking – he was at the monster's neck. He had to strike.

"Ice-Make: Cold Excalibur!" Gray bellowed. He buried the sword to the hilt in the slimy pink roof of the monster's mouth and held on tight as the creature jerked and writhed in its death throes. Juvia screamed his name.

"Get out of there, Gray-sama! Juvia can't hold it much longer!" His legs propelled him backwards into the sewer, where he landed with a splash that coated his face in sewage. Above him, the monster's lifeless corpse swayed dangerously.

"Juvia!" Gray shouted, scrambling onto the maintenance path. "We've gotta get out of here! That thing's coming down!" Juvia nodded and followed Gray as he raced back the way they had come. Behind them, a wave of discharge and other nastiness surged through the tunnel, chasing them and splashing their heels. Juvia started laughing at the absurdity of the situation – they were running away from sewer water – and pretty soon, Gray had been infected by the mood and they were gasping for breath and clutching their sides as they slowed to a jog.

"Juvia thinks… This is the right spot…" she wheezed, stopping under an exit that led to the street above. Gray pulled himself up the ladder and pushed aside the cover. His head came back down into the dank tunnel.

"Yeah, this is it," he said, offering Juvia a hand. "Let's go." As Juvia took his hand, her vision split and whirled, as though she were looking through a kaleidoscope and she'd just given it a sharp twist. Her stomach churned, and it took all she had not to vomit right there. "Juvia?" Gray's voice was distant and tinny, like he was in a recording. "Juvia, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she managed to whisper. "Juvia is…fine." She could feel the blood draining out of her face as her cheeks went cold and clammy. "Just… Please help Juvia get out of here…" Gray swept her up and over his shoulder and scaled the ladder at speeds that would have impressed a professional rock climber. Finally out in the fresh air, he laid her down on the ground.

"Feel better?" he asked. Juvia closed her eyes. Now that the nausea-inducing stench was gone, she did feel somewhat better. But she knew that wasn't the problem. She had used up too much energy earlier, fighting the monster. Evaporating was weakening her, so the more she did, the worse it would get. And now she was exhausted. She wasn't sure she'd be able to get up by herself.

"Juvia just…needs to rest a little while. She will be fine soon, and then Gray-sama and Juvia can go home. Jace will be waiting…"

"Shut up," Gray said, not unkindly. "We'll stay here for today and go back tomorrow." A strand of hair that had escaped Juvia's ponytail lay limply across her nose, and he brushed it away in an absent gesture.

"No, Juvia has to go home. She has to talk to Porlyusica-san soon." Gray blinked.

"Porlyusica? Why?"

"Porlyusica-san said she would help Juvia…" was the last thing Juvia murmured before she fell asleep.

"What the hell?" Gray muttered, lifting her up off the pavement. "If you need help, you should say so, idiot." Her head lolled against his forearm, and her warm cheek pressed into his skin. "How am I supposed to protect you if I don't know what I'm protecting you from?"

Juvia woke up, for once, to a pleasantly cool sensation. A low rumble buzzed in her ear, and she glanced to the side to see the very muscular, very bare chest of a sleeping Gray. Heat spread from the crown of her head to the tips of her toes. She glanced up. He was asleep, his jaw leaning against his fist, his elbow balanced on the arm of the seat. The rumble had been his faint snoring. Gratefully, Juvia noticed this train had window shades and someone had pulled theirs down.

She sat up and took stock of their surroundings. They were on a train trundling through the nondescript countryside. The short, round woman who came down the aisle with a cart of drinks told Juvia they were about fifteen minutes from Magnolia. Juvia bought two bottles of water and opened one with a pop. When she had drunk half, she put the cap back on and turned to Gray. It really was a shame to wake him, but she had to soon. "Gray-sama," she murmured, touching his shoulder. He grumbled and shifted, but didn't open his eyes. "Gray-sama, the train has almost reached Magnolia." Oh, she wanted so badly to kiss him awake, to climb into his lap and–

Gray stretched and yawned cavernously. "Sorry, I fell asleep." Juvia sighed silently and offered him the unopened bottle of water. "Oh, thanks." He smiled slightly at her, and something in her heart flinched. She wanted to tell him to stop making her love him when she would be gone so soon. Instead she leaned back against the threadbare seat and closed her eyes. "So, what was it you needed to speak with Porlyusica about?"

"What?' Juvia's eyes popped open and she stared at Gray's hard expression. "Juvia said something like that?" He just met her gaze pointedly. "But, Juvia doesn't even know Porlyusica-san. You must have misheard."

"Porlyusica is a pretty unique name," he said. "Stop pretending and tell me the truth, Juvia." The way he said her name sent shivers down her spine.

"Juvia is telling the truth," she lied softly. "Juvia doesn't know what you're talking about, Gray-sama."

"Like hell you don't," he said, just as quietly. "I'm tired of playing these games with you, Juvia. If something's wrong, you have to tell me."

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"Why is it that you care so much, Gray-sama?" Juvia asked, her eyes closed again. "What makes you want to know so badly?"

"You're my friend and my guildmate," he said levelly. "Of course I care."

"Then why haven't the others asked Juvia what is wrong? Why is it only Gray-sama who is so persistent?" She sounded agitated now, her fingers gripping the armrest in a chokehold.

"I don't know!" he exploded. "I just do, okay? It bothers me to think that you don't think you can trust me with this! I want to know what's bothering you. I want to help you with it. I hate thinking of you struggling all by yourself."

"There's nothing you can do." The raw hurt in her voice was the only thing that kept Gray from breaking something. As it was, the water bottle in his hand was crushed into an unrecognizable ball, water leaking out between his fingers. "No one can help Juvia."

"But you said Porlyusica–"

"She is trying," Juvia said slowly, "But no one knows how to save Juvia anymore. This is the end."

"What are you talking about?" Gray hated how desperate he sounded. "What do you mean, end? What the fuck is going on?"

"Magnolia Station, Magnolia."

Juvia darted out of her seat as the train slowed, slipping out between the doors almost before they even opened, her blue dress swishing behind her. Gray stared after her, his mouth sour with the taste of too many unanswered questions.

Of all the things, she'd forgotten her keys. Juvia knocked on the door again, praying Jace had gotten back already. But the minutes ticked by, and no one answered the door. Back to the wall, she slid down to sit on the floor, head in her hands.

There wasn't a word in any language anywhere that was adequate to describe how much of an idiot she was. "Moron," she whispered through her tears. "Stupid. Dolt. Idiot. Imbecile. Fool. Idiot…"

When Jace found her an hour later, she had collapsed onto her side in front the door and curled up into the fetal position. He didn't say anything, just picked her up and brought her into the apartment. After tucking her into her bed, he brought her a glass of the sweet iced tea she had been saving in the fridge.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

"Of course," he said simply. The silence that fell between them was comforting and familiar, like an old blanket you've had since childhood. Jace stroked Juvia's hair once and got up to put the empty glass in the sink.

"Should I have told him?"

Jace paused on the threshold of Juvia's room. "About the thing?"

"Mm."

"If you were him, would you want him to tell you?"

Would she? How would she handle knowing the one she loved more than life itself was disappearing?

She would go looking for a cure.

"No, I wouldn't want that," she sighed. "If there was nothing I could do, I wouldn't want him to tell me."

Jace slid into the bed with her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "You told me."

Juvia cast a sulky glance at him from under her lashes. "But Jace is Juvia's brother. You're different - you have the right to know. If she hadn't told you, you'd be at home right now, completely unaware that your older sister is vanishing." His grip on her arm tightened.

"True. But Gray is here in the same town as you, and he has no idea what's going on. Don't you think he'd be miserable if you disappeared without giving him the chance to try to help you?"

"Gray-sama will forget Juvia quickly," she murmured, pressing her cheek against Jace's shoulder. "He will be alright without Juvia." The sadness in her voice at the thought of being forgotten twisted Jace's stomach into knots.

"You were out on a job with him today, right?" he asked, changing the subject. "You okay?"

"Juvia is okay."

The lie was bitter on her tongue and stung when she swallowed.

I like that ending line. Okay, so about the quote. I feel that's more of just a general Gruvia quote. Doesn't it fit them (especially in this situation)? But yeah. Who do you think was right – George Plimpton or Oscar Wilde? Personally, I think it's true both ways.

See you next week! Remember to drop me a review and favorite & follow!