Author's Note: Hey! Some of you are still around! Thanks for leaving your comments-it certainly is a motivating factor for me to finish posting this story.

Okay, to be honest, I completely forgot about writing an opening for this chapter so... there isn't one. But! This is one the chapters I actually really like in the story. Why? You'll see...

Branded by HawkofNavarre

Chapter 8

This Truth

There was something that had changed about Juvia over the last week; that was something Gray was absolutely sure of. She seemed a little more self-assured and confident in everything she did. The day after she'd told him about the meeting place with Bora, she'd ordered a piece of cake along with her tea, and there was an unusual vigor in her voice when she'd spoken to the waitress. Strangest of all, Juvia had stopped mentioning Bora entirely unless the topic of him came up naturally in conversation. Not that he minded, of course, but abrupt change in her attitude was taking him a bit longer to get used to than he'd expected.

Still, Juvia was far better company than anyone in Fairy Tail right now. As they sat together in the train car, a comfortable silence settled between them. Even outside the café, it appeared that they'd inadvertently replicated the same scenario they created daily. Juvia sipped at her tea while Gray sat across from her with a disposable coffee cup in hand. A light drizzle was covering the window adjacent to them, but the sun remained visible today. He took in the deep smell of his brew and relaxed back into his seat. Peace. Tranquility. Yep, he definitely needed this.

"Is there something wrong, Gray-san?" Juvia asked, drawing his attention away from greenery outside.

He silently wished he could tell her how Elfman, Max, and Cana were all on the same train two cars down. He wished he could tell her about how absolutely chaotic the last week had been ever since he'd returned to guild headquarters bearing the same information Natsu had. He wished he didn't have to sit here and lie to her through his teeth, and yet here he was. Telling himself it would all be over soon was the only way his conscience would allow him to move forward.

Gray drummed his fingers along the smooth wood of the table. "Just tired."

She seemed to sense that he didn't want to talk about it, but her dark eyes remained curiously on him as she drank from her cup again. This one wasn't exactly a lie. Natsu had spent most of the week picking fights with him that he wanted nothing to do with just because Makarov supported him going on this mission.

Honestly, part of Gray knew where Natsu was coming from; after all, it had been he who'd fished that bottle out of the water and he who'd been exchanging letters with Lucy. If Gray had been in position, there was no doubt he'd feel some sort of responsibility to the girl he'd promised to save. Unfortunately, while strong, Natsu was also rash and impatient. When they were a cat pursuing an elusive mouse, the worst thing they could possibly do was scare off the mouse. If Bora was a mouse, then Natsu was a dragon; he'd alert the mouse of his presence when he was still miles away. It was why Erza had to put so much effort into actually subduing him this time. She'd forced him to stay at the guild and watched him like a hawk around the clock. The only thing that seemed to calm him down a little were the now daily letters Yukino had been helping him send to Lucy.

Well, with any luck, Gray would be on his way home tonight with Lucy and a bunch of other girls in tow. He had to focus on the bright side. When he thought about how angry Juvia would be when she discovered the truth, he really hated himself. On the other hand, she would finally be able to see Bora's true colours. Would it be enough to finally open her eyes?

"Hey, what do you plan on doing when you see Bora?" he asked. "Don't you think he's gonna be mad that you came?"

Her sigh was soft but audible. "Yes, perhaps, but...I want to do something that I want for once. Juvia will just have to face the consequences."

"Even if that means being alone?"

To her credit, her resolve didn't seem to waver as she smiled. "Yes. But Juvia will still have the guild to support her."

Gray returned her smile, feeling the weight on his chest lift a little. No matter what he did and what she found out, at least there were people that Juvia could lean on.

He thought about the friends he had that were following him to Cedar Town—out of sight, but definitely not out of mind. They were a big part of the rescue mission, but as time went by, he was more and more grateful that they would be there for whatever fallout there was with Juvia. He told her the other week that he considered her a friend, and somehow he didn't think she was going to return the sentiment anymore once the truth came out.

Until then, he was just going to pretend like he was going on a mission with a teammate.

"Hey," he said after a moment, drawing her attention. "I'm here too, you know."

She blinked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean we're friends, so if you and Bora don't work out, I'll be here for you too," Gray said. She flushed under his gaze and he couldn't help but chuckle. Typical, yet somehow endearing.

"Juvia knows that Gray-san is only here for business. It's okay if Gray-san lied last week..." she replied as she fiddled with the handle of her teacup.

Although she was just a target for his mission, Gray winced at how deeply that implication cut. He rationalized the feeling by remembering that he'd decided to treat her just like another teammate from the guild. Sure, he was lying about a lot of stuff, but the kinship he felt they'd developed was not one of them. He knew it would be better for both them if he just left things the way they were and yet...

"I didn't lie. I wouldn't be on this train with you if I had," he said. "You already gave me the location. I could've ditched you last week."

She stared at him for a second, then started giggling. He frowned, a feeling of insecurity starting to creep in.

"Gray-san is saying a kind thing, but he says it in such a terrible way," she stated.

Gray didn't embarrass easily, but he felt the heat rising to his face regardless. However, he only shrugged in response.

"Don't worry. Juvia is grateful," she told him, an appreciative smile on her face.

He nodded and looked away quickly. For a moment there, the sun had caught her hair and she appeared more resolute than she ever had that he saw a completely different person sitting across from him than the one he'd first seen three weeks ago. Pretty, he thought. Beautiful. Which was why he had to avert his eyes. The last thing he wanted was to get caught staring.

When they arrived in Cedar Town, there were still a couple of hours before the scheduled meet up with Bora. As such, neither of them was in a big hurry to get anywhere as they strolled casually down the street, umbrellas in hand.

"Perhaps we can get some food? If Gray-san is hungry," she suggested to fill the silence between them. It wasn't uncomfortable, per se, but they were in uncharted territory with a significant event oncoming. If anything, they were both feeling nervous about the meeting with Bora.

Gray shook his head. "Not yet." Stopping, he looked around to observe the area around the train station. "Have you been here before? I have no idea where we're going."

"Juvia has been here once before on a mission," she said as she tapped her chin in thought.

"Great. Then you know your way around," he said. "Lead the way."

"W-well, to where?" Juvia asked, blinking.

"I dunno. Anywhere," he replied with a shrug. "Isn't there some place you wanted to go the last time you were here?"

Juvia just stared at him. "There's...a big fountain—"

"Then let's go there."

And so they did. Juvia led him to the biggest market in town with various stalls surrounding a massive stone fountain in the shape of a tree. It didn't spout water like most fountains, but there were well-concealed openings within the carved branches where the liquid would seep out. Water streamed down the various notches on the surface of the tree, sparkling brilliantly in the daylight. With several people sitting on the ledges around the fountain, it took a moment for them to find an unoccupied spot.

"It must be even more beautiful on a sunny day," Juvia murmured as they stood up against the ledge. Gray was unsure whether she was talking to him herself, but there was a note of sadness in her voice. Once again, he was wondering what her issue was with the weather.

"What's wrong with the rain?" he asked, sitting down next to her. He didn't mind that the ledge was a little wet. "It's kind of everywhere you are, isn't it?"

"Then Gray-san has noticed," she replied, a little downtrodden.

He shrugged. "It's hard not to. It almost seems like it's a part of you."

"And that's the problem!" she exploded. Gray stared in amusement as the rain seemed to shake in the air. "It's everywhere Juvia goes! Then she's too gloomy to be around every single time!"

He watched as she leaned over, placing her finger against the surface of the ledge. The water was drawn to her contact like a magnet. Suddenly the makeshift bench was dry and Juvia was casually tossing the gathered droplet in her hand back into the fountain, throwing herself down beside him in a huff. He'd known she was called the Rain Woman, but it was the first time Gray had ever really seen her use magic. It was actually quite fascinating.

"I try so hard..." she said miserably, "but the rain won't stop."

"That's why you make all those teru-teru bōzu, and why you asked me how I felt about the rain," he mused, lowering his umbrella and pulling it shut. Placing his weight on his hands, he closed his eyes and faced the sky, letting the rain fall on his face. "I don't get what's so depressing about this. It's just rain."

"Most people do not agree with Gray-san, unfortunately. And Juvia has already tried everything to stop it."

Gray glanced her deflated posture. "Not everything."

She clutched the handle of her parasol close to her chest as she looked at him quizzically. Paying no attention to her, Gray dug through his pockets until his thumb felt a smooth, circular piece of metal. He pulled the coin out and turned to face the fountain, staring it down.

"What are you doing?" Juvia asked.

"Something you haven't tried," he replied. "We're at a fountain. I might as well make a wish."

Her cheeks reddened. "That's-that's silly, Gray-san!"

"So is sewing dolls to stop the clouds from rolling in, but you don't see me saying anything about that," he pointed out. She quieted after that and he thought carefully about his exact wish. Nodding to himself, he flicked the coin with his thumb close to the base of the tree, sinking down to where all the other stray wishes lay at the bottom.

"Gray-san shouldn't use his wishes on me," Juvia said in a small voice. She couldn't look him in the eye, almost as if she were embarrassed by his actions despite them being so trivial.

Glancing at the watch on his left wrist, he stood up and opened his umbrella once again. They hadn't spent that long here, but they needed some time to grab a bite to eat before they headed to the docks, and that was one meeting Gray was sure he wanted to be early for.

"I didn't wish for your sake," he said, starting towards the food stalls. "I wished for my own."

Ten minutes. They were ten minutes away from nine in the evening when they reached the docks and ten minutes away from something being wrong. Gray felt it in his gut the moment he set eyes on the boats stationed at the dock. None of them looked right. Even in the darkness, the light dampened even further by the rain, he could tell they were all fishing boats.

Gray's steps came to a stop near the edge of the water. It was pitch black out there, probably because no ships were scheduled to come in this late. The rusted nearby lamp wasn't much of a guidepost all by its lonesome.

"Your boyfriend definitely said to meet at nine today, right?" he asked Juvia, but she looked just as bewildered by the abandoned state of the dock as he felt.

"Yes, of course," she answered from beside him. Her head swiveled back and forth in search of the person they both expected. "Juvia wouldn't have come today if Bora-sama hadn't given this date and time. There is still time before nine. Perhaps he just hasn't arrived yet?"

"Let's hope so," Gray said as he sauntered back over to where the lamp was. Eight minutes and counting, but he was starting to feel as impatient as Natsu always was. Where was this guy? He scratched at his flank with his free hand. All these clothes were starting to feel way too heavy.

Glancing around for other signs of life, he wondered where Cana, Elfman, and Max were. It was possible that they'd already spotted Bora and this unusual anxiousness that he was feeling was completely irrelevant. He had to tamp down on his paranoia; he could be negotiating for the life of young girls in a matter of moments. This was no time to be getting into his own head.

A shadow ghosted through the light and Gray whipped his around to search for the moving object. Nothing. There was only stillness leading back to the town, the concrete stairs above the dock completely abandoned. Before he could think about anything else, there was movement to his left—then his right, and then behind him. Deciding he'd had enough of being jerked around, Gray slammed his fist against his palm.

"Ice make," he growled as quietly as he could, but Juvia's guarded stance told him that she was just as aware of the situation as he was. "Prism!"

A perfectly prismatic block of ice formed under the lamp, spreading rainbows across the dock and exposing their predators. Gray scanned their surroundings quickly. Five, ten, fifteen—probably more, but those were the men he could see.

It was a fucking ambush.

He stopped counting when he felt Juvia's boot slide back against his own. If she was surprised by the fact that he could use magic, she didn't show it. It was hardly the time for that anyway. Her boyfriend had set a trap for him, one that Juvia had accidentally gotten caught in, and she was focused on getting them out of it. Did these guys even realize they were up against two mages from a couple of the most powerful guides in Fiore? Well, if they didn't, they were about get a valuable lesson in quality over quantity.

"It's not a good idea to fight us," he warned them as the men began to advance.

Undeterred, they continued and Juvia seemed more frustrated than concerned about their situation. "Where is Bora-sama?" she demanded. The air around them seemed to heat up with her rage.

"He told me to make you forget that you ever knew his name," the man nearest to them replied with a crooked grin, waggling his eyebrows, "although maybe I can make you forget some other way."

Juvia visibly flinched, though more in reaction to the first comment than the second. She couldn't be thinking clearly. This ambush hadn't been set up for her—Bora hadn't even known she was coming. It sounded like Juvia had been so obedient up until this point that her boyfriend never even suspected that she would disobey him. Still, the jackass had been so horrible to her for so long that Gray wasn't surprised that she was considering that Bora had intended for her to be here.

They were surrounded on all sides, but he stepped between her and the first henchman anyway. "Over my dead body."

"Soon enough!" the man said, then charged at Gray, prompting the other men to do so as well.

When the first fist flew at his face, Gray grasped it and twisted his assailant's arm, flinging him into the attacker heading for Juvia. It only took her that extra second to regain her composure as she began to use the rain fully to her advantage. As she blasted the men with jets of water, Gray side-stepped another swipe coming at his head and closed his umbrella before using it as a bat. Too bad the metal rod bent after the first hit.

They started off a little clumsy working back-to-back. Every so often, his foot or elbow would make some sort of contact with her. Not hard, but enough to be a tiny bit distracting. A knife would get disconcertingly close and knick his clothes or a foot would be mere millimeters away from his face. There was ultimately no harm done as they adjusted to each others' patterns. After discarding her own umbrella, it was a little easier to read her fighting style. Her magic could be done completely stationary, but her physical movements were all about flow. There was never a beginning without an end. He ducked when he felt her spin and she unleashed a vicious attack on three of the men who'd been heading for him.

Their teamwork only grew better as the fight progressed. Juvia took out the hoards of people rushing towards them and Gray picked off whatever strays remained with his fists or a good kick. He stayed out of her way as best he could, but on the occasion that a part of him collided with her, she simply phased through him. Honestly, the more he saw of her abilities, the more impressed he was. He'd probably walk away just fine if he were on his own, but since he was trying to maintain some semblance of a cover and therefore was using magic as little as possible, it was really nice having Juvia watch his back.

Gray was in the middle of planting someone's face on the concrete when the light flickered. He took a second to ensure that the guy was unconscious before giving his surroundings a once over. Beneath the streetlight, he saw a couple of the men trying to take down the post. Idiots! If they took out the only source of light, they wouldn't be able to see either.

He flinched when the light flickered again. He and Juvia had moved too far away from it during the scuffle for him to just beat them up before they did anymore damage. Sighing inwardly, Gray summoned his magic. The prism he could've passed off as amateur magic because it was just a stupid shape, but there was no way he was going to be able to explain this away.

"Ice make: prison!" Gray slammed his hands onto the ground and pillars of ice shot up around his intended targets. A very fancy and intricate cage that really didn't fit the environment formed around them. Gray berated himself briefly for including all the extra detail. His bad habits were only going to make his next talk with Juvia harder.

Sensing the racket, his partner looked at the ice prison that was now sitting by the lamp. Yup. She knew what they'd been trying to do. Gray recognized her the change in her expression immediately; that was definitely the one she'd used the first time he'd insulted Bora.

"Juvia has had enough of this!" she announced as she stomped her foot against the ground. She raised an arm and swept it across her body. "Leave us alone!"

Gray watched in awe as he felt the water being pulled off his skin. Water rose from the harbour, the boats creaking and swaying from the disturbance. He looked up to see a massive tidal wave coming down upon them. Juvia did have a tendency to let her emotions get away from her, but this was a bit much. How the heck was he supposed to avoid that thing?

He positioned himself to magic some sort of protection when the water above him shifted oddly. All of his attention was redirected to trying to figure out what had happened before he remembered that the wave was coming down on him. Gray braced his arms in front of his head, ducking down, but felt nothing. Glancing up in confusion, he saw that a perfectly dry circle had formed around him as the shouts of men echoed in the distance while they washed away.

The wave was gone as quickly as it'd come. There was little more than a few puddles on the ground when the rain returned after being robbed from the air. Unfortunately, it was hard to see anything after Juvia's temper had surfaced because the lamp had broken completely under the force of the wave. The cage of ice he'd made earlier was gone too, along with its prisoners. After seeing the absolute destruction Juvia could cause, he really hoped his friends from the guild had been safely out of range when the attack hit. Obviously, they hadn't felt it necessary to come help him beat such low-level dunderheads.

"Gray-san?" Juvia called to him from a short distance away. "Walk towards the town. Juvia will meet you there."

"Alright," he replied as he began heading toward the lights from the town. They needed to regroup anyway and figure out what the hell had just gone down.

It wasn't much later that he was standing under the dim streetlights of Cedar Town, listening to the scrape of her boots against the pavement. She stopped beside him and a sphere of water came floating ahead of him.

"Juvia has some extra baggage," she said, flicking her hand forward as the sphere burst and a man with an eye patch came tumbling out in a coughing fit.

Gray walked up to the man on the ground and lifting him by his shirt. "You'd better have some answers, you piece of shit. Where's your boss?"

He grasped Gray's arm. "H-he ain't—" The man paused to cough, but looked intimidated enough by Juvia's presence to continue. "He ain't here," he croaked.

"And why not?" Juvia demanded.

"There was a guy—a guy g-goin' around to bars last week and beatin' people up, lookin' for the-the boss." The eye patched man squirmed in discomfort, being held with his feet off the ground. "He was crazy! Boss thought he'd show up, but you ain't him!"

Well, clearly Gray was not the guy. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd been in a bar; it wasn't like he was of drinking age yet anyway. That meant Bora hadn't really been plotting to ambush him specifically, but someone else who'd been asking too many questions.

However, this response did not seem to satisfy Juvia. She took a menacing step forward. "Who was this man?"

"I dunno! Some guy with pink hair!"

Pink hair…?

Gray unceremoniously dropped the henchman on the ground with a thud. The man scrambled to his feet and sprinted away without pursuit as Gray edged back slightly. Of course. Of course! Who had the subtlety of a house on fire? Natsu had come barrelling through the front door of the guild, bragging about how he'd found out where Bora would be using his own methods. To think he would do anything other than beat the information out of random people would be giving him too much credit, and in doing so, he'd also ruined this entire mission.

"I…do not understand," Juvia said in a shaky voice. She was staring at the ground as if the puddles would give her answers and Gray put his anger on hold to take a moment and think about why she was confused.

In the end, her reasons were easy to see. If Bora were a coffee importer, then what did it matter if someone was going around town looking for him? Why would someone need to hurt others to find him? And above all else, how in the world did a coffee importer have the kind of power that would allow him to send hoards of men to get rid of the people who were looking for him?

The lost expression on her face clinched it. Even if things hadn't turned out the way he'd expected, it was time for Juvia to figure out who her boyfriend really was. Maybe she'd even help Gray find him. Nobody from Fairy Tail had come out to help him during the fight because they'd known he could handle it, so even with the magic he'd used, his cover was still kind of intact. It was for the mission; not because she needed guidance, he told himself.

"Juvia," he started as he turned to face her, reaching for her hand, "there's something you should know."

Gray gently held her fingers in his own, trying to figure out how to break the news, but she had frozen at his touch. No—no at his touch. Her eyes were wide, but they weren't directed at his face. The line of sight was a bit lower. His neck…? Not quite. His…

…chest?

He lowered his own eyes slowly as a feeling of dread came washing over him like the rain. There was a large slash mark on his shirt across his right pec, probably from one of the knives he'd dodged at the last second near the beginning of the fight. And of course, it was in the perfect spot to expose the guild mark sitting right below his collarbone.

The confusion on her face was now replaced with one of betrayal. Juvia snatched her hand into her chest like he was poisonous, backpedaling was increase the distance between them.

"Juvia, I can ex—"

"You knew who I was," she said, her voice almost a whisper. Gray was straining to hear every terrible word that might come out of her mouth without getting any closer. "You knew."

He swallowed. She wasn't wrong. "Yeah, I knew."

Juvia was quiet for a long while after that, hugging herself as she stared into the pavement. The rain poured down harder and hit like needles on his skin. He held steady even with the chill in his bones, refusing to move from his position. The cold didn't bother him, but this… this was the moment of his nightmares. He would not be a coward and run from it. There was already so much crap in life he'd run away from.

"They always…want something," she said suddenly. "I hope…you got what you wanted, Gray-san."

Gray shook his head, but he wasn't denying what she was saying. Intent mattered and he hoped it would matter to her too. "I'm just trying to find someone who needs my help. It was never about taking anything from you."

Her eyes were empty and he wasn't even sure she'd heard what he said as she swayed to the side a little. "You know… Gray-san… was the first person who ever said he liked the rain."

She looked so small and vulnerable that he hadn't expected it when the water came rushing at him. It slammed into his chest, knocking the wind out of him. Everything happened so fast that there was no time to react. Mage or not, he was useless the moment he'd let his guard down.

A sharp pain radiated through his back as it crashed into something solid and hard, his head whipping back with a similar pain only a millisecond later. Gray stared forward into the night, vision out of focus and blurred, but he could make out Juvia's face. Finally, she met his eyes and he could see the droplets streaking down her face. As his eyes closed, he wondered if that was the rain or her tears.