Author's Note: Hey all, still playing catch-up, but once I get a little further along in the story, updates should come a bit quicker...although considering my serious lack of time, that probably doesn't mean the near future... Again, I want to really emphasize that whatever I publish won't be abandoned, regardless of how long the next update takes. Stick with me and I will stick with you!

As always, thank you to everyone for your feedback, favs, and alerts. They do not go unnoticed or unappreciated!

Yes, I was thinking about melonpan when I wrote this chapter. I just really like melonpan...

Lying was an easy thing for him to do. He was calm under pressure where others panicked and he was quick-witted enough to counter anything that was asked of him. His word selection was always intentional and he never gave up more of the truth than strictly necessary. Talented was what he was. His leaders saw that in him. None of that meant he enjoyed being told to lie.

When it was lower than dirt scumbags he needed to work, it was never a problem. People like that just had it coming—stepping on others to get what you want was liable to get you stabbed in the back at some point—but to involve someone nobody was even sure had the information they needed rubbed him the wrong way. Gray didn't trust Natsu's intelligence. He trusted that stupid letter even less.

"How are you going to play this?" Erza asked as they stood by the guild entrance with Levy. The two women were tasked with preparing him before he headed out to the café for the first time.

He didn't like the words Erza was using. "To play" meant that there was a game going on, that there was somebody who was going to win it, but toying with someone's feelings was not a game to him. He didn't sign up to hurt anyone, even if he had an angle.

"As close to the truth as possible," he answered irritably as he shoved his hands into his pockets. The more he thought about this mission, the more stifling his clothes seemed to become. "Do I really have to do this?"

"If there's a chance this brings us closer to a kidnapping victim? Yes," Levy replied dryly. "This girl is our best connection to Bora. If she knows anything about how to contact him or where to find him, you need to get that information."

Erza seemed to sense his continued hesitation and placed a hand on his shoulder "I know you're skeptical about this whole mission, but you trust me, don't you? And Yukino?" Gray nodded. "Good. Then that's all you need to remember when you get there."

"Oh!" Levy exclaimed, her index finger popping up. She rummaged through her side bag for a second before pulling out a book. "And take this! You're going to get bored if you're just sitting at a café for hours staring into space."

Gray accept the paperback and glanced at the cover. "'The Key to Unlocking Yourself'...?"

She grinned and Gray sighed, the underlying message she was sending him much too obvious. He only hoped that girl would give up the information after a day so he'd hear no word of any of this ever again.

Branded by HawkofNavarre

Chapter 4

Gray Fullbuster

It was official; Gray hated this book.

He was a little over halfway through it, and though he wasn't much of a reader, he had a lot of time to burn while Juvia wasn't at the cafe...which she hadn't been for the last two days. Gray hadn't dared to tell anyone at the guild that. If Natsu found out, he'd create an uproar that would disrupt the entire mission that he'd brought to the guild. If Erza found out, Gray would immediately be pulled from this assignment for such a royal screw up. The only thing he could've done that might be considered a worse move was take off his shirt in front of her and reveal that he was part of Fairy Tail. When Phantom Lord's guild master saw them as such intense rivals, there was no way Juvia would ever continue associating with him if she found out he was one of the "enemy."

Still, Gray couldn't take back the things he'd said. Before meeting her, he'd already been reluctant about taking on the mission for a number of reasons. Now that he knew who she was and how she was being treated, he wanted nothing more than to help her distance herself from this situation. The ever elusive Bora was real. Gray knew that now, and he was a really shitty person at that.

The major screw up had been his approach. No matter how terrible of a human being Bora was, Juvia still seemed to deeply care for the man. Gray's blunt opinion clearly hadn't been helpful in any way. He could find a better way if it meant showing her she deserved better.

…Of course, that was assuming she was ever going to show her face here again. He really hoped she would because this book was the absolute worst.

"Do you ever feel guilty? Do you ever feel at fault for the pain and suffering of someone else?" the book had asked him. It had to be mocking him. Levy had to be mocking him. This was definitely the chapter she'd wanted him to get to. "If so, this is not an unusual thing to feel. Many feel responsible for something negative happening in someone else's life, but this is a feeling that can drown you if you let it. When guilt, shame, and blame are all self-directed, it guards your ability to be truly happy. As such, this chapter's Key is one of the most important of all: The Key to Forgiving Yourself."

By the hair of The First, he hated this book.

Gray tossed the book on the table with disgust, not caring whether or not the water damage on it worsened. If Levy wanted it back in pristine condition, she shouldn't have given it to him to read during this mission. Or under false pretenses, for that matter.

Speaking of water damage… Gray looked around to see that it had started raining quite heavily. He leaned back and inhaled the cool, humid air. There was always something that was so soothing about the way rain made the air feel. Maybe it was just how the mist stood on his skin or the way his magic prickled at his fingertips in the presence of moisture, begging for him to create a work of art from the world's materials. He loved that feeling, because it didn't rain that often in Magnolia. At least, it didn't unless a certain mage was around.

As he raised his eyes forward, he found Juvia standing on the sidewalk outside the café's patio. She looked a little alarmed underneath her parasol, as if she were surprised to see him sitting there. For a moment, Gray had to force himself not to react. His heart was hammering hard in his chest in anticipation of her next move. Would she come in for her tea? Or would she walk away now that she knew he was here?

With a small grimace of her lips, she moved past the fence that surrounded the place and sat down at the table next to his. She was sitting in the same spot she'd been in when he first saw her here, which was a step backwards, but at least she was actually within eyeshot now. The real challenge was how he was going to get her to sit with him again. It'd been quite the challenge last time to figure out where to sabotage the umbrella she was sitting under just enough that it would annoy her into moving. Now she was braving rain water in her tea just so she didn't have to sit with him.

"Good to see you again," Gray said nonchalantly, though he was racking his brain to figure out how he was going to open a dialogue with her again now that she was actively trying to ignore him.

Juvia stared at the door to the café without any acknowledgement that she'd heard him whatsoever.

He reached forward to grab Levy's spawn-of-the-devil book and collapsed back into his seat. "You must've been busy. You were gone for a couple of days."

Again, she pretended like he wasn't talking to her. Gray carried on, hoping that he would somehow break through this wall of silence somehow.

"I'm not the quickest reader, but I really made some headway in this thing while you were away," he said as casually waved the object around. "Glad you came back with those rain clouds, though. If the water ruins this book, I'll have an excuse not to read the rest of it. It's a pain in the—"

"You like the rain...?" she suddenly cut in quietly. Juvia's gaze was no longer aimed in whatever direction was away from his face and her eyes shimmered with apprehension.

Gray wasn't sure exactly what he'd said to warrant that reaction, but he seemed to be on the right track. He had to tread carefully if he was going to recover the relationship he'd blown last time. "Well, it can be a little gloomy," he started honestly, "but I've always liked the way it feels on my skin. And it doesn't rain a lot around these parts, so I actually enjoy it when it does."

Juvia seemed to contemplate his answer for a moment before she followed up. "Then...it does not bother Gray-san that it always rains around Juvia?"

He shrugged. "Why would it?"

She smiled shyly and blushed, allowing Gray's heart rate to slow considerably. He'd done it. He'd managed to get her back on his side.

"Sometimes Juvia doesn't mind the rain so much either," she said. Her tone was amiable, like her comment was a peace offering.

"Listen, I'm…" Gray absently flipped through the pages of his book. "I'm sorry, for what I said the other day. I was out of line."

"Juvia accepts your apology," she replied softly with the barest of nods. She didn't say anything else, but did wave her hand at the waitress who finally saw them through the window. Feeling like he should quit while he was ahead, Gray firmly kept his mouth shut and turned the book to random page, though his eyes never left her.

A moment later, the water mage flinched a little when a raindrop snuck through a tiny hole in the umbrella and fell on her nose. She wiped it off carefully, letting the droplet sit on her fingertip as she stared at it thoughtfully. Eventually, she closed her hand into a fist and the water disappeared. Juvia placed her knuckle under her chin as her eyes dropped shut with a sigh.

Watching her, there were a million things Gray wanted to ask, but it wasn't the right time. Instead, he moved his eyes to the pages in front of him, all the while wondering why she seemed to care so much about the rain.

Gray knew they had truly made amends when Juvia sat with him the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. The moment she showed up, she would politely inform him Bora had not yet contacted her and she would take a seat across from him. They talked about everything and nothing, from her guild's big mission of finding some rich dude's daughter to the proper way to each sandwiches. Sometimes there were long stretches of comfortable silence where Gray would simply (and begrudgingly) read his wretched book while Juvia sewed a teru-teru bōzu. When she showed him a plushie she'd made of one of her guild mates, Gray discovered that this girl was quite the crafty person.

Despite her claim that she disliked him, she had strangely become very open with him. She had spoken to him candidly ever since that comment he'd made about the rain. Between her strange fixation on the weather and the little prayer dolls she was making, Gray had to be blind not to realize that she had some deep-seeded psychological issue related to the rain that followed her around.

Erza called all of that research, but the mission was growing more uncomfortable to Gray by the day. Although Juvia had some strange quirks, it was clear to him that she was just a pretty decent person in general. She never badmouthed the people in her guild and seemed to work hard at her jobs. Even her initial response to him had been quite honest. She was...sweet.

Juvia just wasn't the type of person he was used to working. She was in a position with Bora that she clearly didn't deserve to be in. The longer he spent with her and the more he learned about her, the worse he felt about lying to her. How much she really knew about her boyfriend was up in the air, but he knew in his gut that she wouldn't condone anything Bora was doing. Still, he had to make sure.

It had been just shy of a week since they'd started sitting together again that Gray noted the sun peeking through the clouds, apparently determined not to allow the rain to drown out all its effects. Juvia came into view only a few seconds later. This time, along with her parasol, she was carrying a pink cardboard box with her. She was humming happily as she set the box down on the table they shared and she closed her umbrella.

"You're awfully chipper today," he said.

"It's a very good day," Juvia replied, beaming while she opened the box. "Bora-sama has not called Juvia yet, but I have a very good feeling that he will soon!"

Gray raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

She lifted a small bread bun out of the box, brandishing it with glee. "Melonpan!"

He stared at the bread in her hands, wondering if she were actually crazy after all. If there were ever a time that he thought melonpan would somehow change his entire day, he'd ask Natsu to bash him over the head.

When he didn't say a word, Juvia was content to continue chattering on herself. "You see, when Juvia met Bora-sama, it was in the very bakery this melonpan is from. Their melonpanin particular is very popular, so it's often sold out whenever Juvia goes, but they had some left that day." She passed the bread over to Gray who accepted it. "I received the last two and Bora-sama was behind me. He was so disappointed, Juvia decided to share one with him, and from then on, Juvia was forever bonded to him!"

Juvia picked up the second one with hearts in her eyes. "And today, there were only two melonpan left at the bakery! It's a sign! Juvia knows it!"

Gray withheld the crazy diagnosis, but was definitely finding her to be overly optimistic in an almost deluded way. Obviously Bora had done quite a number on her if she was this far gone. Still, it physically pained him to see someone admiring a kidnapping slave-owner. Was Bora that good of a sweet-talker or was Juvia just the type of girl who fell head over heels in love with her boyfriend of the day?

"That's lucky for me," Gray said. He took a bite of the bread, noting the pleasant sweetness of the bun and the buttery crunch of the top crust. It was no wonder this bakery's melonpanwas always sold out. "Sounds like you really love the guy."

She quieted for a moment, her enthusiasm muted as she chewed her bread. "Juvia...is always followed by the rain. Most people don't like to be around that all the time. Even Bora-sama likes to take some time away from it, but he has stayed with Juvia. That never happens outside the guild."

"Well, I'm still here, aren't I?" he asked pointedly. "Think your boyfriend would mind that you've been spending so much time with me over the last week?"

A shade of red took over Juvia's face and Gray grinned. She was so easily flustered.

"J-Juvia's trying to h-help Bora-sama's business!" she stuttered out.

"And you're sharing your sacred love bread with me. This is starting to look a little suspect," he continued as her eyes, glued to the melonpan in his hands, widened in realization.

"That's not what Juvia intended at all!" she wailed in horror.

With the girl mentally panicking over her decision to bring him bread, Gray took pity on her. As much fun as it was to watch her flounder, he was already putting her through enough. Maybe they hadn't quite become friends, but there was a level of trust between them that he was already breaking.

"Calm down. I was joking anyway," he said as he went straight back to business. "So you think I'll get to meet him soon?"

"I will be sure to tell him about Gray-san!" Juvia replied. "He will be glad to know that his company is becoming popular!"

Yeah...he'd sure be thrilled that some random guy knew about his floating festival of abduction. "Sure. Just let him know that I'm really looking forward to doing business." Gray just really hoped she didn't ask what kind, because he had no idea what Bora had told his girlfriend about the kind of trading he did if she didn't know the truth.

"Oh, that's right!" she said, blinking rapidly as if she'd just remembered something. "Juvia never asked whether Gray-san wants to buy or sell."

"Buy," Gray responded quickly. He forced himself not to lose eye contact as he picked up his coffee mug with his free hand and took a sip.

Juvia didn't appear to suspect a thing. "That makes sense. Gray-san is always drinking coffee here. Juvia knows that Bora-sama's imports are the best!"

Gray struggled to hide his surprise, almost choking on his beverage. Luckily, he managed to play it off as a small cough. Of all things...she thought Bora was a coffee importer? After he got past his own fortune in being a coffee drinker, it actually seemed like a pretty smart cover. Pretending to travel to different ports around Fiore to taste their blends as well as buy and sell throughout both the country and world gave him a reason to be away for long periods of time and was specific enough that Juvia wouldn't ask too many complicated questions.

Yeah, she wouldn't ask too many questions. Because she thought she knew all that there was to know. Because she thought that she was supporting her boyfriend's legitimate business. She was thinking all of these things and happily buying bread that honoured their first meeting.

Gray's grip on his melonpan tightened. Watching her sit across from him contently nibbling at her bread, he thought about everything he'd learned about her in the last few days. This girl...she was just a genuinely good person with a kind heart. He couldn't stand the fact that Bora was treating her like dirt. He couldn't stand the fact that he himself was sitting here and lying to get her to do what he wanted.

He suppressed his emotions like he was supposed to for the rest of the day, but the bread felt heavy in his stomach as Juvia chatted on about how she'd come across the bakery. La Forêt Cacheé, it was called, but Gray couldn't concentrate long enough to remember anything else she said about the place. She had to leave about ten minutes later—earlier than usual—because she had to work on that big mission for her guild. It gave Gray a reason to head back to his own guild headquarters feeling worse than usual.

The rain had departed with Juvia, but he stared at the darkened pavement beneath his feet with every step. Sunlight refracted through the droplets of water perched on the windows, sparkling almost too brightly. He brought a hand up to shield his eyes as he traveled. That girl, Lucy, and all the other girls she was with...they didn't have this view. They were missing out on the simplest pleasures in life, like walking through a town. If deceiving one girl was going to allow them to set that right, wasn't it worth it? Logically, it was, but he somehow couldn't make this whole thing feel less wrong.

As soon as he stepped through Fairy Tail's doors, Gray stripped off his shirt, feeling suffocated by the weight of his own thoughts. He couldn't believe he'd been able to able to keep all of his clothes on around Juvia for a week.

Oh jeez, he wondered what response Juvia would have to a comment like that.

"If you keep your face like that, it's going to stick," Erza told him as she came up beside him in her favourite Heart Kreuz armour. "Any progress today?"

He grimaced, as he'd been doing a lot lately. Gray couldn't be sure that his face wasn't stuck considering how terrible he felt. "Maybe, I dunno. She thinks he'll call soon for some absurd reason."

Erza shrugged. "Sounds like a good thing to me. The sooner the better. Besides, as soon as we figure out how to get to Bora, you won't have to do this anymore," she said, placing a hand on Gray's shoulder which didn't make him feel better at all.

"I shouldn't be doing this now," he retorted as he swiped her hand away. "Juvia doesn't know anything. She thinks her jerk of a boyfriend is a coffee importer."

Erza frowned, looking ready to knock some sense into him, but she remained stationary. "I know this is hard for you, but she's the only connection we have to a man who's abducting innocent girls. If you stop this mission now, your conscience isn't going to be clear either way," she said. "I'm not asking you to be without compassion, but think about the consequences of being indecisive. Don't make this about you."

He felt as if someone had stabbed him with an ice pick. She certainly hadn't hesitated in driving that point home, not that she was wrong. Gray really didn't want Juvia or any of the missing girls to get hurt, but he wasn't even sure that he was putting them first. Erza had a really good point. He was just wrapped up in the guilt of his part in this mission. Having already established a relationship with Juvia, there were only two courses of action: quitting or continuing. It went without saying that the outcome of continuing was the lesser of two evils.

"I get it. It's not about me," he grumbled.

His senior nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Let's just get this done and you can focus on making things right then."

Gray tried to find the positives of this commitment. He would help save the lives of a bunch of girls who were no older than he was. He would get to expose to Juvia the horrible scumbag Bora was, even if she hated the way he did it. Maybe this would be good for her. Maybe. He had to see it from that perspective or how else was he supposed to continue this job?

A door loudly closed from the second floor landing and Gray looked up, seeing the library door fall shut behind his childhood rival. Natsu locked eyes with him almost immediately and sprinted down the staircase with Happy in tow. Gray inwardly sighed. The man had been insufferable since fishing that bottle out of the water.

"You find him yet?" he asked as he skid to a stop in front of them.

"Not quite, but soon," Erza assured him, but this didn't seem to satisfy the dragon slayer.

Natsu clenched his fists, scowling deeply. "It's always 'not quite' or 'soon'! This is taking too long!" He turned his glare on Gray and pointed an accusing finger at him. "You didn't want to do this mission in the first place! I should've gone instead of getting stuck on research duty with Levy!"

"Seriously?" Gray scoffed as he shoved Natsu's arm out of his face. "I'm helping you, 'cause you couldn't pull off this mission if you tried. You could be a little more grateful, lizard face."

Heat radiated off his rival who was baring his teeth. Gray had half a mind to start cooling him off, but Erza's presence held him back. The last thing he wanted to do was piss off the Titania when she already looked like she was about to skewer someone with her sword if someone dared to make one more wrong move.

At first, he was sure that Natsu was going to start a fight, but in the next moment, the dragon slayer stood up straight and out of combat position.

"You know what? I'm sick of waiting," he said, looking at Erza pointedly. "I did what you and Master told me to and we aren't any closer to finding Lucy. I'm going to look for her myself! Let's go, Happy!"

"Aye!" the small cat responded, and the two of them went running through the exit.

Gray stared at their retreating backs for an instant, then glanced curiously back at Erza. "You're not going after them?"

She sighed in exasperation, but no longer looked like she was going to stab anyone. "You know as well as I do how he gets. I could stop him physically, but I can't babysit him. Letting him feel like he's doing something is better for all of us. Maybe now Levy can actually get some research done."

"What exactly is she researching anyway?" he asked.

"Well, tracking port traffic, for one thing, but she's also seeing if she can find out who else might be on that boat. She might not find anything, but at least if she does, we've got more of a lead than just Bora's girlfriend." Erza sent him a meaningful glance. "If we're lucky, we won't need another lead though."

"Let's hope we're lucky then," he muttered as he silently prayed that Bora really did contact Juvia soon. Doing this for a week was already too much. He couldn't fathom doing this for another one, because this wasn't about him, but he couldn't stop the feeling that was eating him from the inside.

Juvia was late—later than usual. There was usually a window of about 30 minutes where she would arrive every morning, but it was already ten minutes past that. Gray wondered if maybe her optimism had paid off and Bora had actually come to visit her or something. That seemed unlikely though, knowing the type of man her boyfriend was.

If he were being honest, he was a tad worried about where she ended up, but that was mostly because he had too much time to let his mind wander. The only thing that he had to occupy himself was that wretched book that Levy had given him, and that was clearly the worst book ever. Please, the Key to Forgiving Yourself? What a load of crap. Watching paint dry was preferable.

When another ten minutes of dry weather passed, Gray decided that he would only stay for another ten to see if she showed up. A full hour was a fair amount of time to wait.

It was only a second later that he felt a speck of water hit his face, causing him to blink. He looked up to the sky where dark clouds were beginning to form. The sound of a raindrop hitting the surface of the umbrella brought a grin to his face. As the rain grew heavier, he kept his eyes looking east, knowing exactly where she'd come from.

Sure enough, Juvia appeared before him under her parasol. She looked a little different than usual. It was her hair, he thought. It wasn't curled up along the sides like she always styled it. Instead, her hair hung loosely down onto her shoulders in messy blue waves. Gray briefly wondered if the change was for a special occasion of some sort until he saw her face. Her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks a little chapped, likely aggravated from being wiped.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked, his chest physically throbbing from seeing her in this state. Is this what he would do to her if she ever found out the truth…?

"Juvia spoke with Bora-sama this morning," she said, her voice dull. "Bora-sama would like to meet with you."

He looked at her quizzically. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"Yes," she replied, almost whispering.

"Juvia," he started as he grasped her shoulders in concern, "if it's good, then I don't understand. What's wrong?"

Juvia swallowed audibly, as if holding something back. "Bora-sama would like to see you," she said, "but...he doesn't want to see me."