AN: to honour Valentine s Day, here is an extra chapter ;)

Chapter 6: Getting involved

Lucy and I take the same route down I took when going up. While on the staircase, Lucy suddenly asks: 'Wait, why did Mira tell you we were here?'

Yeah, why indeed, Rain.

For a second I consider making her believe I'm here to go on a date with Natsu, like Mirajane thinks, but I'm not sure what Lucy's relationship with Natsu is. I'd rather have her as an ally for now.

'A special request came in,' I say vaguely. 'Someone asked for one mage in particular…Gray, actually.' I guess it doesn't hurt to tell her that part. 'So I was sent to get him.'

'Oh, I didn't know that happened in mage guilds,' she says, completely unaware of how stupid it sounds. I just nod.

When we get downstairs, I point to the area I already checked when entering the building, so we go the other way. I still smell no pine trees.

The other side is a mess. There are turned over tables, broken chairs, plates, cutlery, papers and pieces of food everywhere. A cafeteria, I presume.

Next to me, Lucy gasps. Then she runs towards what appears to be the body of Gray, lying among the rubble.

My heart stops. No more blood is running through my veins.

I should have known things weren't alright.

I drop my bag and run after Lucy. When I kneel down beside Gray, I see his eyes are empty. Quite literally: the color is gone and the pupils are too. I fear the worst.

Lucy puts a hand on his shoulder, probably to shake him awake, but she flinches when she touches him. 'He's cold. Colder than usual.'

And at that moment, Gray shatters in a million tiny pieces of ice.

Lucy screams and tries to assemble the shards. I just sit there in silence, staring at the exact spot where his absent eyes just were. I feel as if a building has fallen on top of me.

'Wha…how…' I stutter.

Then I look at Lucy, who's half crying. And I think to myself: she did this. This cheap perfume using monster killed Gray with just a touch.

Then I think back to the pine tree smell.

'Wait,' I say more to myself than to Lucy, but she listens and stops collecting the ice.

Next, an unfamiliar voice calls to us. 'Please stay calm.'

I look up and see a girl among the rubble, leaning on her arms and knees in a pool of water, and I can only describe her as 'blue': blue hair, blue eyes, blue clothes and even slightly blue skin.

Lucy immediately jumps up and reaches for a pouch at her hip, the Celestial Keys. 'Elemental four,' she says, which tells me nothing.

I'm still sitting on my knees, shocked and most of all confused. They're not friends, I gather that much. This must be one of the mages who took Erza and Happy.

I would rather find out why I can't smell Gray when he was just here than get involved, but it's pretty much expected that you join a fight like this when you wear the guildmark. So I stand up and think of the first attack spell that comes to mind. The words are on the tip of my tongue when a voice cuts through the tension.

'Wait, Lucy!'

A shiver runs down my spine and I feel weak in the knees. I stare at the pool of water beneath the strange girl, and it takes everything not to run towards it.

I hold my breath.

Aside from a few scratches, he seems fine. The water barely affects him, his hair's not even wet. It's magic from the blue girl.

I breathe out a sigh of relief.

'She's not our enemy anymore,' Gray says to Lucy, and I think he means the blue girl.

I've kept myself from imagining how this meeting would go, because it would either way be better or worse than my fantasy. It's been a challenge, even now I feel the tension that's been building up shuddering through my body. I mean, it's the sixth chapter and just now we actually get to interact in real time?

Focus, Rain. What's the situation?

When I look at the blue girl more attentively, I realize I'm not loving how she's positioned nearly on top of Gray, and it doesn't seem like she wants to move.

'That is correct,' she says, 'Gray was inside of Juvia.'

I nearly choke on nothing. 'Inside?!'

Suddenly all eyes are on me. The girl, Juvia, gives me a smirking stare.

'That's right,' she says, 'not inside of you, inside of Juvia!'

Yeah, this is definitely worse than I imagined.

Gray moves away from Juvia, not a hint of shame on his face, as if all of that embarrassing stuff just now didn't happen.

'What are you doing here?' he asks, and it takes me a second to realize he's talking to me. It's our third time ever.

'There's a special request that came in, just for you,' I say, as flatly as possible, 'it's pretty urgent, so Makarov asked me to find you.'

I wait to see how this lands. Lucy nods, probably just glad to show she knows this happens regularly at mage guilds (which it doesn't), but Gray raises an eyebrow. I don't bother looking at Juvia.

'You came all this way to tell me that?' Gray asks.

I hope my cheeks stay pale. 'Yup. No biggie.'

Suddenly, my entire plan feels stupid and inappropriate. Erza, one of Gray's closest friends, has been taken and who knows where Happy is. This is not the time to ask personal favors.

On the inside, I groan. On the outside, I remain calm.

'You know what, it's probably not as urgent as what's happening here. I mean, we should find Erza and Happy first. Right?'

Gray stares at me and I grind my teeth, resisting the urge to run away and go live in the woods like a nomad.

Then he says: 'You're right.'

And starts unbuttoning his shirt as if that's a normal thing to do.

Juvia's eyes widen. Even though I've seen him undress a million times (because he does it approximately six times an hour) I still avert my gaze. I'm just glad the attention is off me now. I'm not sure Gray bought my lie, but he's too preoccupied with other things to really question me.

Lucy is completely unaffected by the appearing abs. 'So what happened here?'

'After it got dark all of a sudden,' Gray says, 'I decided to leave a double and see how things turned out, but…'

I'm assuming this has something to do with the casino, I don't really care. Gray ruffles his hair with his hand. My heart skips a beat.

The moment is ruined when Juvia opens her mouth. 'In order for him not to be discovered by the enemy, Juvia protected Gray in her Water Lock.'

To my amusement, Gray looks annoyed.

'And thanks to your meddling, they got away!' he snaps. Juvia pulls a face as if she got punched in the gut. There's no way Gray's into her.

'Lucy,' Gray says then, 'where's Natsu and the others?'

As Lucy explains, I stare at Juvia and wonder what the hell she's doing here. Lucy was surprised to see her, so she wasn't part of the trip. She used to be an enemy, but seems to have switched sides. I've got a feeling it has to do with Gray, and I'm not liking that at all.

My gaze shifts over to Gray and all of a sudden all I can think is how happy I am that he's OK. For a moment there, I did think he was gone and it was the most awful feeling ever. Whatever happens next, I will do my best to make sure he's safe. With what little power I have, that is.

Wait.

I look back at Juvia. She's staring at Gray, and is probably thinking the same thing. That pool of water just now was her magic. She could completely absorb Gray and was able to keep him out of harms' way. What else is she capable of? And even worse: she's very pretty.

I grind my teeth. This was not how I wanted my quest to go. Somehow, I got involved in a very messy situation. Not only is Juvia in the way, there are also enemies who are powerful enough to kidnap Erza, the literal Titania. Gray won't leave until she's freed. Which means this might take a while.

I look back at Gray. Fine, I say to myself. After this is over, I will ask him about the quest. And it will just be the two of us, probably for months, maybe even years. Enough time to get to know each other.

My thoughts and Gray and Lucy's conversation are interrupted by a sudden burst of flames and a yell. I duck to not have my hair burned to a crisp.