I don't even want to think about how long it's been. Let's say a while. It's been a while, beloved readers. I was kind of losing interest in this project, but I got this great idea that got me back into it. There will be some time-skipping back and forth, so I'll try to be as clear about that as possible so no one gets confused. If you do have a question, leave it in the reviews and I'll get back to you.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter! And thank you so much to everyone who's stuck with my temperamental update schedule. Your reviews, favorites and follows mean a lot to me.

It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone. -John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

After Levy left, Juvia sat in the silence of Porlyusica's small house and cried.

She didn't want to let them go.

But there was no choice. There was nothing left that she could do but help them forget.

The door opened, and Porlyusica stepped inside, carrying a brown paper bag. Juvia wiped her eyes and gave her a watery smile. "Porlyusica-san, can Juvia ask you for one last favor?"

Porlyusica eyed her suspiciously for a long moment before turning away. "What?" she snapped, but her voice had lost some of its edge.

"There's something Juvia wants to make, but she needs your help. Please."

Porlyusica swung back around to face her, arms crossed. "What is it?" Juvia's chin tipped toward the mattress, casting a muted shadow across her legs.

"A way to forget."

A WEEK LATER

Gray slouched into the guild hall, yawning so wide his throat creaked and his eyes watered. Erza stared down at his tonsils. "Morning, Gray," she said. "Ready for our job?"

Gray nodded. "What was it again? Some rampaging monster in Crocus?"

"Yeah," Lucy said, coming up behind him. "Thank Mavis it pays well. My rent's about to be late." Just then, the guild doors slammed open to reveal a cackling Natsu and an equally gleeful Happy.

"Morning, everyone!" Natsu bellowed, jogging up to his team, Happy close behind. "Ready to go kick some monster ass?"

Gray rolled his eyes and massaged his temple. Dealing with Natsu's energy so early in the morning was giving him a headache.

Erza surveyed the company and smiled. "Alright, everyone's here. Let's head out."

Gray yawned again. But as he turned to go, a flash of pain cracked through his skull. He staggered, reaching out blindly to steady himself on the wall. He caught Natsu's shoulder instead, nearly pushing them both over.

"Hey!"

"Gray!"

"You okay?"

His friends voices were foggy and distant as Gray pressed the heel of his hand into his forehead. His teeth clenched against another bolt of pain. It felt like his head was splitting in two. A groan squeezed between his teeth, and he bent over, fighting his breakfast. Someone shouted his name again, next his ear. For a fraction of a second, the pain abated. Gray tried to look at the girl who had spoken and realized his eyes were closed. But when he opened them, the world spun and warped, and the girl with the worried dark eyes vanished behind a curtain of black.

Gray awoke inside a tree.

Sunlight streamed through the small window cut into the trunk and onto the crisp white sheets spread over his legs. The next thing he became aware of was the dull ache wrapped around his skull.

"So you woke up," a disdainful female voice said from somewhere on his left. "I thought you might not. Really, that stupid child should have warned me about these side effects." Gray turned his head gingerly to survey Porlyusica, red eyes irritable. Her mouth pinched even tighter as their eyes met. "If you're better, get up. I have other things to do, boy."

Gray slid his legs carefully out of the bed, testing his weight before standing. He was a little dizzy, and his head still hurt, but it was nothing like the hellish cracking feeling or swirling nausea of earlier. He turned toward the door, and then remembered that he was probably sick with something. "Hey, old woman. What's the matter with me? Do I have the flu or something?"

Porlyusica didn't even glance over her shoulder from where she stood sorting herbs into lumpy green piles. She stripped the leaves from a vine with sharp, efficient snaps. "Same thing he has," she said, just as the door swung open to reveal Natsu and Erza half-carrying, half-dragging an unconscious Gajeel. His head hung limp, and his face was an eloquent shade of green. Levy hovered behind them, worry turning her cheeks pale. "Is he going to be okay?" she demanded. "What's wrong with him?"

Porlyusica strode toward the odd procession, brushing bits of plant from her hands. "Put him on the bed and then get out," she commanded, reaching for an odd glass bottle on the end of her worktable. It bubbled and curved in abnormal places, going concave where it should have pushed outward, and the swirling liquid inside was a peculiar shade of mauve. "Open his mouth," she snapped at Levy, who had bravely remained. Trembling, Levy grasped Gajeel's jaw and pried it open.

"…ia…" he breathed, his face contorting. Porlyusica's scowl deepened. Levy bit her lip like she was trying not to cry, but she held his mouth open as Porlyusica poured a mouthful of the weird mauve potion into his mouth and pinched his nose shut. Gajeel swallowed, coughed, and shot bolt upright. Levy squeaked and tumbled backwards, right into Gray. He landed hard on his tailbone and groaned. The fall had jostled his head, and it felt like his brain was trying to splatter itself on the inside of his skull. Levy scrambled off him, mumbling rushed apologies.

"Mavis, you old bag!" Gajeel snarled at Porlyusica. "What the hell was that nasty shit? It tasted like piss and garbage wrapped in a rotten burrito." Porlyusica rolled her eyes.

"Don't be such a drama queen, you moronic boy. I'm not the one to blame for your condition. And besides, you only had one dose. I gave that one three." She gestured at Gray. He shuddered, thanking Mavis he hadn't woken up in the middle of that process.

"Anyway, you gonna tell me what the hell is wrong with me? Did I get drugged or something?" Gajeel demanded, but Porlyusica was studying Gray with a thoughtful expression.

"Interesting," she murmured. "Yes, I understand it now. Fullbuster, what were you doing when you got the headache?"

Gray frowned. "I was about to leave the guild on a job. And then–" Pain sparked in his skull and he stopped. Porlyusica nodded.

"Don't push it. And you, metal head?"

Gajeel's lip curled in a silent snarl, but he acquiesced. "I was sitting at my usual table when I just thought there was something missing. It was like–" His frown became a grimace, but he kept talking through clenched teeth. "It was like…there should have been someone there…who wasn't." His face was ashen by the time he finished, panting. Gray's head throbbed in sympathy.

"So? What's wrong with us, old woman?" he asked Porlyusica, just to take his mind off the look on Gajeel's face. Like he knew something, something about why they were like this.

"It's a curse," Porlyusica said easily, setting the glass bottle back in its place. "You'll probably be like this for the rest of your lives. Don't expect me to be able to do anything about it, because it's not my doing. She only told me the basic recipe," she muttered then, more to herself than to anyone else in the room. "Stupid girl wouldn't even let me see the spells she did. So determined not to let me come up with a remedy. Damned stubborn child."

"What girl?" Gray demanded, suddenly seeing those sad dark eyes again. "Who are you talking about?"

Porlyusica stared at him, and Gray could've sworn it was sorrow lurking in the crimson depths. "I suppose you are happier like this than if you knew," she sighed. "But she should have warned me, all the same."

"Porlyusica-san, what is that?" Levy whispered. She was staring, horror in her wide eyes, at something on Porlyusica's worktable. The old woman glanced at it.

"The book? Something that–" She shook her head. "Just something someone left here. I've been meaning to throw it out – it's a waste of space." She reached to pick it up, but Levy lunged for it, sending freshly plucked leaves and stripped stems flying. The younger mage clutched the paperback so tightly her knuckles turned white.

"This book – I know this book," she mumbled. "I've wanted a copy since it came out last year." Porlyusica looked strangely anxious.

"It's just a trashy romance novel," she snapped. "Leave it and help your boyfriend get up before he falls on his face trying to play the tough guy." Levy turned a dark shade of scarlet from the roots of her hair to the collar of her dress, but she set the book down and rushed to wedge her tiny body under Gajeel's arm and keep him upright. Gray watched Porlyusica as she grabbed the novel and made a hand motion. In the next instant, the worn book disappeared.

Gray frowned. What was the point of getting rid of it? Why couldn't she let Levy have it? Instead of asking that, he said, "What did you mean when you said we're cursed?"

Porlyusica looked at him, still sitting on the ground where he fell after Levy slammed into him. "Has it occurred to you that what Redfox said is true? That there's something missing here?"

The ache in Gray's head thickened into a sledgehammer. "No," he managed to get out. "There isn't anything missing." Pain lanced through his head, and that same pair of dark eyes stared at him from behind his own. Slowly, the world went black, until all he could see were those dark, sad eyes. "What is this?" Gray choked. "What the hell is going on?"

Gray-sama?

Gray stared at the eyes. They stared back, and the misery in them made him sick with sorrow. Who are you?

A familiar, warm feeling embraced his body. Gray thought he might be floating.

Gray-sama? It's okay to forget now.

Juvia just wants you to forget.

The potion really did taste just like Gajeel had described – like 'piss and garbage wrapped in a rotten burrito', with maybe a few chunks of one of Elfman's old socks mixed in for a little added flavor. Gray's stomach churned, and he coughed. He was breathing hard, but whether from the dream or Porlyusica's science experiment gone wrong, he didn't know.

"Awake?" Porlyusica asked, but Gray wasn't paying attention. He was grasping for the words the girl with the dark eyes had said.

"Gray?" Levy said, her voice soft with concern. Gray looked past her to Gajeel, who stared back with dark understanding in his eyes.

"Juvia," Gray panted. "Her name was Juvia."

The drama... Fun times. It gets better, don't worry. For some reason, I'm really interested in interactions between Gray and Gajeel, since they're the two most important guys in Juvia's life (in canon, at least) and yet they never talk or fight or really have any connections at all. So I'm thinking these two will probably team up for my own selfish purposes... That'll be fun. Writing Gajeel is great, because he swears and growls and grumbles and makes scary faces.

So I hope to get reviews from all of you (a girl can dream, can't she?)! Favorites and follows are also greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!