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Chapter Text

xGx

The first thing he took note of was pain.

His throat and lungs ached like he was in the midst of recovering from a terrible head cold. His back was sore, with large portions throbbing dully while he shuffled this way and that, across what he now realized was a hard, stone floor. 

If that weren't enough the wound he'd been gifted by his bastard fellow-pupil Lyon Vastia, was making itself known, too. As far as he could remember, it had been well on it's way, healing wise, reduced to a mere tenderness. Now it felt raw and red, like the skin was taut, or worse, infected.

The second thing he took note of was his complete lack of knowledge of where he was, or how he got there. 

He opened his eyes, and for a full minute it wasn't much different from keeping them closed. Darkness greeted him, blinding and complete, and Gray worried that whatever left him feeling like he'd been trampled by a horse, had also taken his sight.

Over and over he blinked, determined beyond common sense to see, until his eyes adjusted to the low lights that filled the space before him. 

It wasn't much to look at.

Above him, just out of sight, soft flickering shadows ran along the walls and floor, indicating weak candlelight. The same stone that he laid upon, climbed up the wall on his right and before him. To his left: bars.

He was in a cell. 

A threadbare blanket sat bunched by his ankles, where he'd more than likely kicked it off in his sleep.

Beyond this, there was nothing to see.

Gray sat up, pushing up from the rough stone beneath him for leverage, but it was too much, too soon. Even with his eyes closed, his head felt dizzy and disconnected from his body, and within the span of thirty seconds, he was slumped against the floor once more.

Chapter Text

xGx

When Gray came to the second time, it was to the feel of cool fingers running along his face and neck.

Immediately, this concerned him. 

Gray Fullbuster wasn't used to feeling cold, he was cold. Normal life for him meant either being uncomfortable from some form of oppressive heat, or not taking notice of his climate at all; the chilly fingers that lingered on his forehead was more of a shock to his sensibilities than any of the other issues plaguing him at the moment.

He wanted to know who it was.

Unfortunately, his eyelids felt so heavy in that moment, he wouldn't have been surprised if something was pinning them shut. His body as well, was just as leaded, and his throat was dry and itchy.

So he lay there, blind, mute, and paralyzed, hoping beyond hope that he was being felt up by an ally. 

While the mystery person continued their inspection of his neck, Gray racked his brain, trying to think of who it could possibly be.

An enemy would explain the cell he'd glimpsed earlier, but whoever this was seemed gentle, considerate. Not like they were checking to see if their hostage had kicked the bucket too soon, more like they were concerned for his health.

And now that his mind was a bit clearer to think on it, Gray didn't entirely trust his earlier observations.

After all, it was possible he'd been hallucinating before; maybe between waking and sleeping he'd conjured something up to comfort himself while his eyes healed…?

While that seemed a bit far-fetched for Gray's comfort, it did make the smallest amount of sense. And given all the confusion he was currently facing, he'd take any lifeline, no matter how small. 

The fingers drifted again, lower, past his collarbone to pause at the first buttons of his shirt.

Gray sensed hesitation, and that sent his mind whirling once again.

He'd been mulling over the idea of Erza for a second there; with her armor-clad hands, it was at least possible she'd dipped them in some cold water, probably under the belief that icy metal against his skin might bring him some comfort. But that option was out now.

Erza wasn't the type to hesitate during someone's recovery over petty things like privacy or societal norms on decency.

The redhead would have thrown all that out the window, along with every ounce of caution she'd ever possessed, and ripped his shirt to ribbons, without so much as a note of apology.

In the same vein, Porlyusica was out; she had no bedside manner whatsoever. 

It could be one of the guys, but who did he know with any kind of medical training…?

Gray was quick to run through every member of the guild he knew, and just as quick to dismiss them. 

… 

…There was one person he'd known that would fit the bill.

Someone who cared about him, genuinely, and would have overseen his injuries with real concern. 

Someone with medical experience, never mind how rudimentary it had been, that had always been enough to heal him up. 

Someone whose skin had always been cool to the touch, no matter how many hours he'd spent in the snow, training… 

He knew it wasn't possible, he'd just seen her – what was left of her – melt down and drift out into the ocean. He knew it would only cause him pain to even imagine it could be her, he was setting himself up for disappointment.

And yet… 

And yet he couldn't help his hope, couldn't contain the way his stomach swooped and his heart began racing, excited despite himself, because he'd seen plenty of remarkable things. Things that went beyond explanation or logic.

Why couldn't something, for once , happen to him that defied everything he understood, and just brought him happiness?

A sharp inhale of breath then, tried to shake him out of it; the sound was too high, too young, nowhere near the reassured, measured tone Gray had grown up with for a little over a year in his youth, yet it wasn't enough to tamp down his hope.

He wasn't ready to face reality yet.

Something went crashing to the floor. A lot of somethings actually, it sounded like this person was tossing dozens of things onto the floor and out of their way. 

Scrambling and scraping sounds accompanied the ruckus while they rummaged around, then a triumphant gasp – still out of tune – before the figure shuffled up to him once again.

Pop! 

A trickle of dread began to form at the base of his neck, but the feeling was so irrational, Gray promptly ignored it. 

The cool hands had returned to his face, but this time their grip was firmer, more forceful. The fingers clenched at his jaw, forcing his mouth open despite himself, and before he knew it a second hand clamped firmly against his lips, pushing something small and chalky past his teeth and down his tongue. 

His eyes flew open, then, while his hand went straight for his throat, clawing at it desperately while he tried to cough up whatever this stranger– this psycho –had just shoved into his mouth. 

In his panic, Gray thrust himself up against the wall, knocking his head soundly into it at the same moment he threw off whoever else was near him. The figure didn't go far, hovering beside him in just as much distress, while he choked and gagged. 

"Oh! Water!" Someone cried, and Gray decided in that moment it was definitely not who he'd hoped, "You need– You're supposed to– Here!" 

Out of nowhere, a hose of water crashed into him, pinning him against the wall and blinding him for the third time so far today. 

He was soaked in seconds, thrashing against the oncoming tide, while a strange sense of deja vu crept up on his consciousness. But his main focus remained on not dry-drowning, so he pushed and fought, punching the air and water in turn with reckless abandon in an effort to get everything to stop. 

No sooner did he have the bright idea to try and crawl away, leaving this fight for another day, when the stranger called off the jets. 

Silence echoed in the space, only interrupted by sporadic drips and the steady whimpers of a stranger, before Gray collapsed in a literal puddle on his side, coughing and spasming, his throat raw and rough, anew. 

It was only then he realized something was missing. His hand went to his neck but it was pointless, and that intensified his feeling of dread. 

Somewhere along the way, he'd swallowed it… 

The mage felt his hand fall to his side without any thoughts on his part, which left him worried that loss of external limb control was a side effect of the probable roofie now dissolving in the pit of his stomach.

He scrambled his fingers up the wall beside him, hoping to find purchase, before weakly pushing himself into something of a sitting position, coughing all the while, and croaked, "Yo– You poisoned me."

It came out as a statement, but he'd meant it as a question. What the hell had he done to warrant something like that? 

"No! Juvia never meant to poison, only hel–!"

"Help?!" He cried, or tried to, his voice was actively failing him, "I'm closer to death's door now, then when I was–!" The rest of his complaint was lost within a fog of incoherent hacking. 

"That's why Juvia gave you the wat –!" 

"You hosed me down , that's what you did!" The maker mage hollered, swiping wildly at his eyes, so he could finally get a look at this nut, whose voice he didn't recognize. "Haven't you ever heard of glasses ?! Cups ?! Were they outlawed while I was asleep?!"

His eyes refused to clear, making his earlier efforts pointless. 

Meanwhile, mystery voice has been reduced to veritable squeaks, "Well, no, bu–"

It didn't continue.

This was no surprise to Gray; torturers tended not to be so good with words, as his five minutes of torture experience led him to believe. 

All his thrashing about and arguing had only led to his being exhausted faster. Once again, Gray was left to slump in place, though this time at least he'd managed to land his head on an actual pillow. 

The ice mage lay there for a moment, grateful whomever his pseudo-nurse had been, had either had the decency to allow him moment with his thoughts, or else that she'd left him to his own devices.

He'd rather not die surrounded by an active and attentive audience. It was kind of humiliating.

It took a minute for his mind to sort of settle down, back within his body. Though, this wasn't an all together good thing; now he could feel each injury from a fresh, newly painful perspective. Aside from his throat, his nose ached and burned in a way that felt familiar with the flu, though he was sure his battle with the jet stream had more to do with it, than that. 

Lyon's injury was still there and still painful as fuck, though his bandages felt a bit loose and wilted now.

…Probably because of the water. 

His clothes were remarkably still on, but also soaked through, adding an additional layer of discomfort to his skin, already swollen from his impromptu shower. 

And of course, he'd just slapped his head against solid stone, so… 

So far, not so good. 

The only thing he could really say had gotten better, were the aches he'd acquired from sleeping flat on the floor. He was grateful that he'd found some relief there, at least.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but as his headache subsided a bit, Gray went out on a limb and decided to test his sight.

His eyelids were no longer weighed down heavily, opening them was no longer a problem. But just as before, he wasn't really seeing . 

Through wet lashes, he blinked once, twice, three times, trying to make sense of what he saw. 

At first it was only splotches of color. The low lighting, same as when he'd opened his eyes before, didn't lend much in the illumination department. 

Red… 

White… 

And a lot of blue… 

He gave himself another minute, squeezing and unsqueezing, all the while rubbing at his temple again, then at his eyes, before trying again.

Blue… 

A deep blue coat, with a matching deep blue hat, over bright blue curls, beside wide, dark blue eyes… 

Eyes that stared back at him, only inches away from his face. Eyes that were hidden, partially, between fingers that were moon white.

He'd noted that before. The blue. The white. As well as red… 

No. Not red, pink . This mystery person's face was pink because–

He… was not lying on a pillow.

Mother of Mavis… 

How he'd ever managed to convince himself that he was alone and lying on some cushion that hadn't been here even fifteen minutes ago, really lent credit to how out of his mind, Gray really was.

They'd warned him about the dangers of being under the influence, and now, here was the proof. 

He was plopping his body on top of any stranger who'd have him! 

If he'd had the strength, he would have put as much distance between himself and this mystery person – because he was absolutely certain he didn't know who this was – and apologize profusely for mistaking her for a cushion.

As it was, Gray was certain he was going to experience organ failure pretty soon on top of everything else, thanks to his drugging earlier, so without much room emotionally for embarrassment, he just sort of wiggled in place until he managed to shuffle off of her, landing soundly on his shoulder, with his back to her. 

This effort proved to be pointless, because no sooner had he awkwardly escaped, then she'd recaptured his head, replacing it firmly on her thighs.

Funnily enough, he was beginning to make room for some embarrassment… 

The stranger – well, girl , this was definitely a girl – replaced her cool fingers on his head, further confirming she'd been who he'd been dealing with all along. 

A soft sigh left him, at the same moment he let his eyes slide shut. 

He knew he'd only been setting himself up for disappointment with his theory before, perhaps that's why it didn't hurt as much as he'd feared. But still… 

It hurt. 

"Who are you?" He rasped around a catch in his throat that had little to do with water this time.

"Juvia is Juvia."

Remarkable.

That both answered his question, and didn't answer his question.

"And where am I?" He probed further. 

That hesitancy he'd sensed before, while she was fumbling with his shirt buttons, seemed to be resurfacing in his medical attendant, once again. 

"A cell…" She murmured, voice nearly one with the surrounding silence. 

"Uh-huh." That he'd managed to gather all on his own. "And what am I doing here?" 

"You're…" 

It was a lot like pulling teeth out of cold cement. 

"Juvia does not believe we've made formal introductions!" She announced suddenly, thrusting her hand so far into his face he was shocked she hadn't accidentally given him a lobotomy. "Juvia is Juvia–" 

"Yeah, yeah. We've already done that dance." Gray cut in, surprising himself. If he was well enough to sass, maybe his road to recovery was shorter than he'd thought. 

Or maybe she just brought it out of him.

"Juvia would like to know your nam–"

"And I'd like to know why I'm in a cell,"  he countered.

His first assumption had been that she was some kind of nurse, sent down by who'd ever taken advantage of the guild war to capture a member of Fairy Tail.

But that seemed less likely the more time he spent with her.

For one, she was a terrible medic. As shown by her bright idea to hose him down , when she thought he'd need a bit of water to swallow a pill.

Pretty sure How To Fix A Glass Of Water was a course given day one of nursing school.

Maybe even preschool. 

Not to mention, she hadn't even asked him if he had any prior allergies or if he took medicine regularly that could interfere with whatever she'd given him–

No. This woman was no medical professional. 

So with that out, the only other theory left was that she was captured as well. 

He looked around himself a bit, to the scattered first aid kit, strewn all around the floor. Then to the bars, locked up and shut tight, before he turned back to the girl worrying a hole into her bottom lip, above him. 

"Have you trie–" 

"It was not on purpose!" She rushed to say, expression earnest, even in the face of Gray's confusion, "Juvia never meant to beat you so soundly."

That statement dislodged whatever thought he'd been coming to, and left him spluttering. "Wha–! Y– We– I don't even –!" 

"Had Juvia been informed of your prior injuries, and if one thing hadn't led to another… Well, Juvia wouldn't have taken advantage of such a situation for her own gain! Not in that way. She sincerely apologizes." And she thrust her hand in his face once more. 

Gray now had enough strength to move his arms as he pleased, and with that newfound brawn, he took the initiative to push her hand out of his face. 

It wasn't as forceful as he would have liked, but it got the job done.

Once that had been accomplished, he was back to his wiggling; slowly but surely, rolling off her lap to the far less comfortable, much less forgiving, stone floor, before he dragged his half-deadened body to the farthest corner the cell had to offer, and collapsed there. 

It was not his favorite part of the cell, not by far. He had memories here, dating back at least an hour, when he'd been unlawfully drenched against his will.

But Gray was in the mood to be the bigger person in that moment, and promptly ignored his own nightmares to stare down the woman who seemed to have caused them. 

In the time it took him to do all of that, the blue haired girl had gathered up a roll of bandages, still dry, against all obstacles that would have made it impossible, and scooted forward, "Juvia is–" 

"The Rain Woman." He stated within the same second he thought of it.

Of course. He didn't recognize her by her actual name, not even her face would have given him the hint, they could have passed each other on the street and Gray would have been none the wiser. 

If he'd been more on top of things he would have figured it out for himself, earlier. 

Her face tightened, pulling up unnaturally at the corners of her mouth, "Juvia… is not as fond of that name as others have been led–"

He barely heard her.

She'd been inches from him, less than arm's length in fact, moving towards his side. It was smarting terribly in response to all his thrashing about, maybe even bleeding by now, but Gray paid it no mind while he kept his eyes on the woman across from him.

He waited, up until the moment her fingers brushed his shirt, then he grabbed her wrist and slammed it back into the wall, pinning her in place while his other hand moved to form a dagger of ice under her chin. 

It didn't matter that the move hadn't connected the way he'd intended, or that his magic has fizzled and died on his fingertips, leaving only a trace of moisture and the hint of vapor that vanished faster than it had appeared. His aim to hurt had been clear.

Her reaction wasn't as fierce as he would have expected. 

The roll of gauze dropped from her fingers, directly into a puddle, soaking the linen until it unraveled itself. She fell back on her legs, putting space between them again, while her eyes widened, and a soft sound of hurt flew past her lips. 

The whimpering intensified, and even in that low light, Gray glimpsed the girl's chin wobble as she shuffled back, one hand nursing her already reddening wrist, the other clasped around a little ghost figure, just under her neck.  

She looked vulnerable, if not alarmed, and for a solid second Gray regretted his burst of anger. He even opened his mouth to apologize. 

But just as quickly, he shook his head, clamping his mouth shut. 

He knew this girl, he was sure of it. If his memory was serving him correctly, she fit the exact description of the girl who'd kidnapped Lucy. She was a member of Phantom Lord, an elite member, if rumors were to be believed. 

How he'd been captured by an enemy guild was a mystery to Gray. All he could remember really was being on the beach behind what remained of their guild hall, while Erza took the brunt of the Jupiter Cannon, then someone had carted her off and then a bunch of ghosts – phantoms would be more accurate – appeared, and they'd broken off into individual fights. 

He did have a bit of memory – strange and disjointed – where he'd met up with someone and they made the plan to destroy the cannon once and for all? 

Or maybe he'd made that decision on his own…

Then there was rain, and then…  

And then everything went fuzzy. 

A pounding ache erupted in his skull, discouraging him from thinking back any further. 

Gray rubbed at his temples, eyes squeezed shut, while he ran the wave of his migraine.

One thing he knew for certain; he was in a cell and that was Phantom's doing. 

A trickle ran down his neck as he put something else together, "Are you the one who brought me here?"

She sat up a bit, as if to mask her moment of open defenselessness, her voice surprisingly steady, "Yes."

"So you what? Came here to gloat, finish me off?" He thought back to whatever she'd shoved into his mouth, "Test some drug or potion tablet on me? Why–"

He couldn't quite wrap his mind around her presence in the cell, his eyes darted to the door, locked tight just as he'd noticed before, and his confusion only grew. 

The Rain Woman's expression was odd when Gray looked back to her, like she couldn't decide if she wanted to stay closed-off or not, "Juvia… didn't want you to suffer down here, alone… in pain."

"So…?" 

"So she brought…" She gestured weakly at the different items scattered all over the floor, "Juvia wanted to help you."

Help him? 

Gray raised a brow, curious how far her idea of help planned on reaching, "Are you here to get me out?" He leaned towards her a bit, voice low in case someone less than friendly was lurking nearby, "Y'know, like escape?"

Her eyes were downcast, like she was genuinely sad about the answer she was about to give, "No." 

Whatever expectations he'd had regarding this girl popped like a soap bubble, "Then we have nothing more to say."

Indeed, silence reigned between them, with the Rain Woman's eyes fixed on him so plainly, even when he turned his head away, he could feel it just as pointedly.

Eventually the discomfort became too much, and he heard shuffling and clattering as she repacked the medicine kit. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw when she stood to her full height in one fluid movement, fingers clasped around the wooden box's handle and whispered, "Your wounds have reopened."

Yeah, he could feel that. 

Almost as though she could sense his snark, she sighed heavily, "Juvia understands that you'd like to escape now, but you cannot simply attack her when she opens the cell door." 

Against his will, the ice mage's eyes widened, wondering if she truly could sense his thoughts. 

"For one: there is no way you can win against Juvia." She stated bluntly, "And even if you somehow managed that, we are at the bottom of Phantom Lord's basement, there are certain runes and spells that make leaving here exceptionally difficult, and that's only redoubled for prisoners. Once you leave this corridor, it's a veritable labyrinth. 

"And if by some miracle, you managed to beat Juvia and escape the maze above, every member of Phantom Lord is currently trapped here, at the guildhall. They are in a terrible mood, and would love to take it out on one of you. So please, just rest and do not further aggravate your wounds. Juvia will return soon with dry bandages and a meal."

With that, she left. 

Gray held his breath, listening carefully for any hints that could be useful later on. He heard a slight squeak every other step, then hollow thuds that didn't quite match, before it went silent. 

He released it all in a whoosh. 

If Gray had been feeling bad before, his spirits were damn near underground, now.

He inhaled deeply, looking within himself for any hint, any sign of the well he'd come to expect that held the source of his magic but came up empty.

Gray didn't know if he was out of magic, or if he was unable to reach it, but whatever the case, there was nothing there for him to use, no upper hand that could pull him out of this situation. 

At least not yet, not against her. 

Rather pathetically, that had been his only plan of escape so far and the Rain Woman had either seen right through it, or else had some way of hearing his thoughts, meaning any plans of escape from here on out would be null and void. 

Gray suppressed a groan. 

If the latter scenario was true that meant any carefully thought out schemes would be thwarted before he even had the chance to act on them, maybe even to his detriment. Phantom was known to be vicious and cruel on an average day; like the girl had suggested, should Gray give them the chance, they'd take it out on him painfully. 

He'd only have one true shot. 

He'd have to move fast. Not allowing her time to review his plan. Leaving him no choice but to throw caution to wind, head empty, and bust out the second he saw an opening.

He kept his mind carefully blank, thinking of everything and nothing, determined to keep his thoughts scrambled, when he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him once again.

When the girl returned to his line of sight, she was laden with all the things she'd promised, swiftly moving to unlock the cell door and relocking it, once she was inside.

There was no opening in that short span of time, but even if there has been, the wound on his side was blist–

Gray shook his head quickly, remembering his theory on the Rain Woman.

He couldn't let her know his weaknesses. 

Then again, he could be jumping to conclusions. Just because she'd unnervingly pinpointed all his thoughts before, didn't mean she was a mind-reader. That was Lost Magic, and pretty advanced at that.

She could have just guessed.

Gray watched as she placed a tray before him, as well as a fresh roll of bandages as promised, trying hard to control his thoughts before something occurred to him.

Why'd she bring me all this? Mavis, I wish I was back home right now, I'd crack open a new can of Doggie's Delight and savor it along with an ice cold glass of river water. Who cares what my doctor says? Dog food is just human food with a few special ingredients. 

He waited, not breathing.

Here was his thought process: There was no point working himself into a hysteria without confirming whether there was even a problem, to begin with.

He would just think up the most insane thing that came to mind, and assess her reaction. Then he'd know if he was in the free and clear to plot his escape.

Simple. 

As it was, the Rain Woman appeared to pay him no mind. Her movements were casual as she unveiled three large bowls, heady, perfumed steam wafting off of them directly towards Gray in a way that almost seemed deliberate.

He swatted the mist away impatiently, eyes entirely fixed on her, as he sought out a crack in her composure. 

He tossed out another line, this time hoping to get a rise out of her. 

Blue isn't your color.

She rearranged the bowls again, almost like it was a nervous twitch, but her expression remained empty. 

When I was a kid I got a J100 coin stuck in my nose, and in all my panic the only way I could think of to get rid of it was to fish it out using another coin as leverage, which also got stuck. I was three coins deep before my Mom found me. 

I was banned from using my piggy bank for two whole months after that. 

Still nothing. 

He was almost certain by now. Just one more try… 

I know an old lady who swallowed a horse, she swallowed the horse to catch the cow, she swallowed the cow to catch the goat, she swallowed the goat to catch the dog, she swallowed the dog to catch the cat, she swallowed the cat to catch the bird, she swallowed the bird to catch the spider, she swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly, I guess she'll die. 

He waited. 

Nothing, and that was a certified banger. 

Yeah, she wasn't a mind-reader. 

The Rain Woman looked up then, pressing her palm on the wall beside her, before she demurred, "Juvia knows you can't stand–"

Give the girl a gold star!

"–so when you need to relieve yourself… Juvia is happy to help."

It really said something that the image that popped into his mind then, wasn't the most disturbing thing he'd been through today.

The place her palm rested on seemed to collapse into itself, like a false wall, revealing a toilet and sink. They were a bit small, almost like it had been made with a grade schooler in mind, but surprisingly spotless. 

"There is a privacy screen," she informed him, pointing vaguely to a place so high above, the maker mage couldn't really focus on it, "so Juvia will not see anything."

He'd almost been rendered speechless, "I'll manage on my own, thanks."  

He was lying; Gray had no plans to stay here long enough for her to finish her next blink, let alone use the toilet.

Her expression morphed into something that looked comically similar to concern, "That is inadvisable, you could hurt yourse–!"

"Do we really want to play that game?" The ice mage deadpanned, lolling his head back on the wall behind him, so he wouldn't have to look at her, "I'm in your dungeon, forgive me if I'm not so convinced you of all people have my best interests in mind."

She fell silent again, and as he was in no mood to comfort anyone, he let it hold until she cracked.

"…Juvia has brought you foo–"

"I don't want it."

"…There's um…" She swallowed audibly, "There is… Egg and miso soup, croque madame pastries, and vegetable pancakes…"

Gray lolled his head back in her direction, eyes flicking down to look over the uncovered tray. 

Indeed, he saw a large bowl of soup, with soft silky eggs dancing around what he assumed was kelp and tofu. Puff pastry squares, each containing a sunny egg over a slice of ham, and topped with crumbled cheese and bacon, were piled high on another plate. And on the third, crispy, golden savory pancakes filled with grated carrots, cabbage, and more, sitting beside a small dish of dark sauce. There was even a pitcher of orange juice she hadn't mentioned. 

Mistakenly, she'd taken his silence for interest, "If you'd like to try it, Captive-san–" 

Gray really hadn't been considering eating it, he was mostly curious if croque madame was a pretentious way of saying the mother of all cockroaches, but that cute little nickname she'd come up with, really sent him over the edge. 

His arms were the only part of him not really on the mend, which would explain the force behind his throw when he snatched up the bowl of soup and sent it flying into the wall behind her head. 

She managed to dodge it, looking less alarmed then he believed the situation called for, before she said, "Juvia understands you're mad–" 

"You don't understand anything, I don't even understand–!" He grabbed the orange juice, sloshing some on his arm, before he sent that flying, too

The Rain Woman kept her body low, but otherwise remained calm, as though she needed to impart something important to him, "You are straining what little health you've regained–!"

"Why are you pretending to give a shit about my health?!" Gray hollered.

"Juvia is not pretending, she has real concer–" 

He wanted to tackle her then, just for that lie. To find out if there truly was no way he could win against Juvia, but even as his rage grew his legs felt like lead and his arms sagged numbly at his side, another dead weight, as his body gave in to its need to recover above everything else. 

That was the last straw; his disbelief that he could ever stop fighting, even in the face of impossible odds – and quite frankly, the odds before him didn't really feel impossible, and yet they weren't something Gray had the strength to stand against at the moment – was what hurt more than any of the injuries he'd sustained. 

It almost felt like a little piece of himself broke off when he gave in, and his voice cracked a bit when he raged, "Just get… out! " 

Gray ignored the look the Rain Woman gave him as she stared back silently, dark blue skirt now damped with either soup or juice as the mess he made spread out from its landing spot.

Her jaw was set, holding something in, either words or waterworks, he didn't know or care. Then she stood in one fluid movement yet again, and made her way out the cell and down the hall.

Gray's eyes shut, trying to come to terms with his realities. 

His magic was gone. His body was overwhelmed with its own pain. Those things he could handle – had handled, plenty of times before. 

But he'd never thought his fighting spirit could be broken. 

Gray laid back on the threadbare blanket, the damp fabric already beginning to mildew, when his arm hit the tray of leftover food. He shoved it roughly, spilling whatever was left into the wall opposite, and slammed his eyes shut again. 

A few hours.

Either someone would come for him, or he'd recover, either way, he only needed a few hours and then he'd be free of this mess. 

His skin was hot and prickly, though whether that was because it had swollen from all the water still trapped and sticking to his clothes or his complete humiliation, was hard to say.

Skrree! Skreeee! Skre! Eeeeeerrggz!

Gray jerked his head up towards the noise, a nerve under his eye going haywire when he saw the Rain Woman back again and towing a heavy, metal chair just across from the bars of his cell. 

She took care to dust as much of the flaking rust off until it resembled something less likely to carry over a disease, and sat down, large dark eyes going straight to him. 

He seethed at her just once, before replacing his head, facing away from the Rain Woman resolutely.

With nothing else to do, he resolved himself to try and get a nap in, determined to do better once his body had healed even the smallest amount and for the first time in his life, hoping to see Natsu's dopey smile when he next opened his eyes. 

Chapter Text

xGx

He couldn't believe there was a day two. 

Yesterday, he'd woken up around 5AM. He knew this because there a clock on the wall opposite his cell, and once his eyes adjusted to the low lighting he was able to spend all morning looking at it.

And then all afternoon.

And then all night. 

And then he'd fallen asleep. 

In-between that time, the blue haired girl– the Rain Woman popped into his line of vision constantly.

Trying to get him to eat.

Trying to get him to talk.

Trying to get him to heal.

He refused all of it.

His focus was on how he was going to explain to everyone else why he was down here in the first place, once they rescued him. Because he was sure to receive more ridicule after this little incident than anyone could reasonably put up with, he needed a good cover story to at least minimize the damage. 

From there his mind drifted to who his savior would ultimately be. The steady hero Erza? A wild carded Cana? Would revenge lead the charge, with Team Shadow Gear? Perhaps he'd find a major upset in Elfman.

Then the thought of being rescued by Elfman turned his stomach so thoroughly, Gray spent a full hour chanting to himself that he didn't need no man , while willing his legs and back to operate at full capacity.

An hour wasted, to be honest… 

"You will catch cold if you keep throwing off your covers like that, Captive-san." A soft voice called out in the dark, pulling a blanket back up to his shoulders. 

Gray wasn't the only one who'd spent the last twenty-four hours busy.

When she wasn't pestering him in the ways he'd mentioned above , the Rain Woman kept herself occupied in different and bizarre ways.

First she'd discovered his living quarters weren't all together optimal . Now, that gave him some real pause, because what could any person on Earthland possibly want besides a ratty old blanket and wall-to-wall scruffy beige stone?

As far as he was concerned, Gray was living in the lap of luxury. He pitied the poor King of Fiore, probably roughing it right then, as they spoke, wrapped in heavy furs and sitting on cushy chaises. 

Horrifying.  

But despite his blatant silence, she insisted.

So now Gray got to share his itty-bitty cell with a 12-inch thick queen-size cot, that he dutifully ignored while he stubbornly laid on the same stone floor he'd awakened upon the first night. 

Sure, it didn't entirely make sense, he was putting his body through a needlessly difficult trial when he was already injured, but he didn't care.

Giving in felt like a cop out; a way for her to relieve whatever guilt she was feeling, that she ought to be feeling. And for his part, it felt pointless for him to bother getting comfortable here when he'd be gone before he even knew it. 

When it became clear he wasn't going to use the bed, pillows, fuzzy slippers, or massage cushion she'd brought down, from Mavis alone knew where, the Rain Woman realized she'd need to dig her heels in somewhere, and for whatever reason, she'd settled on the blanket.

The ratty old thing he'd awakened to yesterday had been replaced with a chunky knit monstrosity that left him sweltering in a puddle of his own liquids seconds after it met his skin.

He didn't feel like going into details with this woman – that he was an ice mage that didn't need or own a blanket – for the same reasons he'd explained with the cot. 

But he couldn't deny, it raised his hackles each time she unlocked the cell door for the sole purpose of tucking him in, with a pitiful tut puffing out her bottom lip.

Mostly because his body refused to work with him enough to be able to take advantage of it for his own escape, but also–

"Captive-san, please ."

–that damn nickname.

Every interaction between them featured it, the Rain Woman tacking it on to every sentence she uttered as if she knew it felt like she was rubbing a red-hot coal across his brain. 

Because, when she wasn't trying to upgrade his living quarters, the Rain Woman was pestering him for his actual name.

Of course, Gray refused to give it – Why get familiar with someone that would be yet another road bump of his past, in a few hours?  – but that didn't stop her from asking.

Every.

Single.

Hour.

And when she grew bored of those interrogations, she'd start up some other line of conversation, always using that nickname as a stand-in for his real one.

"Captive-san, do you have any allergies?" 

"Captive-san, why is the bed not to your liking?"

"Have you read any good books recently, Captive-san?"

It was driving him mad! 

He'd tried a lot of tactics to try and scare her off, he'd been more openly rude and hot-tempered than even he knew himself capable of, but she just kept at it like an alleycat outside a fish shop.

They were sitting in the bowels of her guild, surely there had to be someone here who missed her? Felt her absence like a physical omen? Yearned deep into the night to be with her?

Right? 

Someone – anyone – had to be out there.

Why hadn't they come for her yet? Insisted she take a load off of her constant watch of him, and cycle in someone new? Perhaps someone more prone to physical violence than psychological, just so Gray's mind could get a little break. 

It's not like he wanted to go back to the hosing–

"Do you have any pets, perhaps a fish? Captive-san seems like a prime fish person," she noted confidently, before taking a short pause and continuing, "Or maybe it's an amphibian Juvia is looking at… Would you mind turning your head so she can see for certain, Captive-san?"

… 

Like seriously, mentally , he could not handle her anymore. He was starting to break down, and once that happened… 

It would only get ugly from there on. 

xGx – Dinner

It was dinner time once again, which meant another round of the bluenette pretending their affiliation with one another was normal, while she presented gourmet meals not fit for the occasion. 

He did notice some of her enthusiasm had waned when she stepped inside, for once not reaching for him and instead shuffling her first aid kit by his side without much fanfare, before unveiling that evening's meal. 

She uncovered the first dish and announced, "Mushroom wild rice–"

gggggrrugllll!

Gray blinked, unable to believe that at this moment, at this time , his own body decided to betray him. 

Again.

Besides rolling her shoulder and a slight widening of her eyes, the Rain Woman showed no sign of having heard anything. "Juvia also made pan-seared pork chops–"

gggggrrugllll–ggggg!

Somehow, this was more humiliating than yesterday… 

" –with a garlic butter cream sauce on the side–"

ggggGGRRRRGgggrlll! 

"–iced pomegranate punch–"

GGGRRLLL–GGGGGLLLL–GGGGGRRRRUUUULLLGGGH!!

The girl's lips twitched ever so slightly while Gray stared at her head-on, daring her to laugh.

She continued quite somberly, "–and for dessert: chocolate pudding."

"Instant?" He asked harshly.

"Fresh." She replied sweetly. 

He wished his stomach could lie as well as his face and voice could; instead it decided to commit itself to a loud round of protest when Gray declared, "Nothing's changed, still don't want it."

"Of course." She hummed.

"I don't ." 

"Hm-mmm."

How could such a blank expression look so smug?

There was a very spiteful part of him that wanted to repeat his tantrum from yesterday, if only to wipe the nonexistent look off her face, but he didn't do it.

He would have liked to blame his injuries, but the truth was he wasn't as prepared to turn down food as yesterday. Fairy Tail was taking it's time, for reasons Gray still hadn't figured out yet, and the ice mage's resolve was weakening before his very eyes.

He wouldn't eat anything!

But… surely it couldn't hurt to take a small sip of something cold… Right?

His biggest barrier at the moment was that he didn't want her to have the satisfaction of watching him crumble. 

He cleared his throat, face turned away so he could continue his charade of nonchalance, and asked, "How do I know you didn't poison it?"

She blinked, brows dipping down in genuine confusion, "Why would Juvia poison your food?" 

His head went back like she'd slapped him, so shocked was he at her nerve to look mildly insulted, "I don't know, why did you kidnap me?!"

Was it that far-fetched to believe her capable of something like that? Or did she think he'd forgotten about the pill? Or was she so used to drugging people she just considered it common place, like a handshake or something? 

She at least had the decency to look a little embarrassed, "Well, that was…"

She didn't continue, eyes bouncing around but unable to find an excuse, choosing instead to play with a fork.

Gray took that as an opportunity to give the tray another little peek, weighing his options. 

He could refuse and wait out the guild. 

It has been two days now, Oaktown wasn't even a thirty minute drive, which meant they'd either had to spend the last couple of days fighting phantoms so powerful and endless anyone on that battlefield would gladly trade places with him now, injuries and all. Or else they were recovering some kind of weapon. Something so devastating it had to be kept off premises, maybe it was stored across the country, like a giant harpoon that emitted a deadly miasma, or Laxus after he'd stubbed his toe.

It had to be some kind of equipment so deadly, Makarov was still in his office, weighing the ethical violations he'd be committing in his tireless effort to recapture Gray. Warning the other members of the guild about the black stain that would be forever associated with their name, the terrible actions they were about to commit that could damn well land them in Dark Guild territory. 

Yeah. It probably was Laxus. 

On the other hand, it felt like he'd lost 15lbs in the last 12 hours, his stomach chewing every organ he had to spare in it's desperate rush to sustain itself. 

And plus, he hated to waste food, it's just not how he was raised… 

He said as much and the blue haired girl twisted behind herself, surveying the wall that had been splattered with food not even one full day ago. "You didn't seem all that bothered by it yesterday, Captive-san," she pointed out, tone innocent and curious, while Gray felt his jaw throb, "Juvia has never witnessed such waste in all her years, until she met you, it was rather fascinating to bear wi–" 

"Did you poison anything on there, or not?" He cut in, face burning.

"Not."

"So you wouldn't have any problem taking a big ol' bite of that rice would you?" 

The Rain Woman shrugged, wiping the fork swiftly with a napkin, before digging into the bowl of pilaf. She piled it high, so the fork was completely full before popping it into her mouth.

When she was done, she opened her mouth even going so far as lifting her tongue so he could see she'd swallowed it. "Satisfied?"

Of course not.

"It's probably easier to poison the meat, cross contamination and all that." He hinted, pushing the second plate towards her. 

She went in just the same, no hesitation stopping her fork as she led it towards the top piece of pork, but Gray waved her off, surprised by his own desires. 

"No, no. That one." The big one, with all the caramelization…

She didn't even pause, immediately turning the fork to the piece of meat he'd singled out, and eating it. 

Her reaction was a bit less casual this time. 

"How is it?" He asked around a mouthful of saliva. 

Her eyes were wide, lashes fluttering before she placed a hand over her mouth, nodding excitedly, "Hmm! Juvia cannot believe she managed to get the meat this tender and juicy! It's probably because of all the garlic butter she spooned over them."

"Oh… you basted it?"

"Hm, yes." She swallowed, going for another bite even though Gray was already 10,000% it wasn't poisoned by now. "Secret family recipe Juvia received as compensation for a mission. Apparently it's award-winning. Oh, and with the sauce –!"

"Yeah… I… I believe you." At this point, even if it was a little poisoned… 

Y'know, he'd survived worse. 

She dotted the napkin around her chin, "Anything else?"

No. "Yes."

Maybe he could get her out of here by pretending someone had called her name, he really only needed thirty seconds alone with the tray to leave it polished.

He'd been raised with a dragon slayer, he'd learned from the best about making food disappear. 

The Rain Woman went in for her fourth bite and Gray had to resist the urge to slap her hand away. "Okay, the pork and rice are fine, but what about the drink?"

The very, very cold, condensation already building on the side of the pitcher, drink.

The Rain Woman poured a glass, tall and straight, twisting her wrist this way and that so he could examine the bright red liquid under different angles of light.

Then she downed it, almost all in two gulps, expression a bit pinched when she set the glass down again. "Tart, but good."

"Fine." He huffed, like this was an incredibly difficult decision he was making for her sake alone, "I'll have some. If only to commemorate my last night down here." 

He ignored her little chuckles, "Shall Juvia test the pudding as well?"

"You can have it," he shrugged, fork at the ready, while he debated what he should dig into first, "I'm not really a dessert person, unless it's ice cream. Caramade Franks are pretty good, too," He added, pulling the pork chops towards him. 

"Cara–?"

"Caramade Franks. You've never had them?"

She shook her head, looking curious.

"They're really good, kinda sloppy if you don't know how to eat them," He informed her while his fork went through the first pork chop like toasted butter , "I'm not too surprised you're unfamiliar, it's more of a thing on the Northern Continent, but there is this guy in Magnolia, I've been going there since I was a kid. It used to just be a cart he'd troop around town with, but he became so successful he has a shop now, too. On sunny days you'll still catch him somewhere around South Gate Park."

"But what is it?"

"It's kinda hard to describe," He realized, setting down the fork to pour out some juice – he was parched from the dungeons dry, periodic heat, he should take care of that first. "Think of a really fat hoagie, like the bread and all? But it's spongy…? No, not really. More like pillowy and toasted, it's made with ground almonds and it has this caramel sauce, really sticky but so good, all wrapped in foil."

"And Captive-san enjoys this?"

"Yeah, it–" It reminded him of home. But rather than let that slip, he said, "It's good exercise, for your jaw, I mean."

"Your–?" She opened her mouth, lips parting a pitiful two centimeters before she asked, "Like that?"

"No, like–" He leaned over and pinched her jaw, pulling it down until it opened nearly three times as wide, "It's more like that. The key is having a really firm grip on it – both hands – while you work your lips around it, that's how you get the best hold, while your mouth latches on to create this kinda suction effect. That's important, you've really gotta suck down all the syrup, otherwise you'll be covered in a sticky mess–"

"Kinda like blood?"

"No," Gray answered, mildly disturbed, "why would your mind go there, who the hell drinks–?"

Then he realized that his hand was still around her jaw, making speech too difficult for the Rain Woman to have said anything.

And besides that, the voice had been deep, gravelly, and it had come from behind him. 

Gray didn't know how he hadn't heard him, he was huge; the kind of big that would make one assume he'd make a commotion just by blinking, that his every action was heavy-handed and leaden-footed. 

He knew at that moment that he was truly injured, because if the ice mage's body had even detected a hint of strength within, he would have moved without thought, using all of it to attack the man before him.

The truest testament to his illness was the stillness Gray couldn't overcome in that moment.

Blood-red eyes glittered malevolently as Gajeel "Black Steel" Redfox leaned his thick arms, studded with what appeared to be iron bolts, on the bars of the cell, teeth slightly bared, as he gazed down at them from above.

"Y'know there's a meeting in ten minutes," he grumbled, the tone softer than Gray would have thought him capable, which only added to his unease, "you need to get going now, if your latest pretty-boy can stand to be away from ya that long."

The Rain Woman removed Gray's hand where it was still frozen on her face, rising to her feet immediately, "Yes, very well." 

An irrational feeling almost overwhelmed Gray in that moment; it was so strong, he felt like he was physically oppressing it, just to keep from acting on it. Everything within him screamed to not let her go with him, to not let her face that man, who seemed to keep violence as close to him as a second skin, alone.

But if he was unable to attack the bastard who'd ambushed Levy, Jet, and Droy, like he'd first wanted to, the ice mage certainly wasn't in any position to restrain a girl he wasn't even sure he wanted to save.

He tried to convince himself there could be some benefit in a fight breaking out between the two – Gray knew the other man was more than capable of attacking a fellow guildmate just for pissing him off, he'd witnessed it himself, and Levy's hospitalization made it clear he didn't hold back on women, so that wouldn't save her from his wraith – but the thoughts sounded hollow, even within the confines of his mind, and he dismissed them pretty quickly.

Just as fast as she stepped out of the cell, Black Steel made a point to slam the bars shut behind her, dark gaze momentarily locked with Gray's before a grimace overwhelmed his features and he grabbed his other arm, wincing a little. 

The Rain Woman pressed a gentle hand there, and though Gray couldn't make out her face with her back still to him, he did hear her concern when she tutted, "Be careful, you'll only aggravate your injuries further being so rough."

"Please," He was quick to brush her off, heading past Gray's cell, down the hall, "I've fought tougher nails in your baked goods, Puddle, I can handle these just fine."

"Do not make jo–"

"When're ya gonna lighten up and realize I can take care of myself?"

"For as long as you refuse to look after yourself properly , Juvia will continue to worry on your behalf, Gajeel-kun."

Their footsteps had already reached the stairs and faded before the scarier of the pair could reply within Gray's earshot.

For the ice mage, dutifully ignored and unceremoniously left behind, he felt as if he'd been doused in boiling water.

He tried to come to terms with what exactly shocked him, the interaction had been so brief, much shorter than the other times Phantom had sent someone down to interact with her, but there was something different this time, an ease, a familiarity that turned Gray's stomach. 

Gajeel-kun.

An honorific of endearment, someone close, someone more familiar than the distantly polite -san. 

And in turn, hadn't he called her Puddle?

Gray pushed the tray of cooling food away subconsciously, his appetite long gone. They had pet names for each other, a familiar air about them that bordered on cuddly .

He didn't understand why this was so surprising to him, he knew she was a member of Phantom Lord, had seen the tattoo plain as day in her thigh each time she'd come in, trying to get him to eat, yet it hadn't been so stark before. 

That she was not simply on cool, distant terms with the vicious bastard who'd gone after Team Shadow Gear when they were at they're most defenseless, stalking them throughout the night, waiting for just the right moment to strike.

It was that she, unlike the other people who Gray had seen try to interact with Black Steel on such a casual level before, seemed to receive the same level of affection back.

And even more surprising, protectiveness , Black Steel's gaze told him quite clearly a line existed in her case, and he'd almost crossed it, to the potential result of a very uneven ass beating.

But more than the anger Gray felt towards the pair, he was angry at himself . At his own weakness, that kept locked in here, at the way he'd almost caved into her false kindness, an obvious manipulation tactic to bait him into seeing her as less of an antagonist.

Had a flash of prolonged hunger really almost brought him on friendly terms with that girl?

Though it may not entirely make sense to those on the outside, for that one moment he'd treated her as anything other than an explicit enemy, Gray burned with regret, as if he'd betrayed the guild a thousand times over.

She was not just anyone. Not a nurse, not a cook. She was a shady opponent, and nothing had drawn that conclusion for him better than the easy way she'd left with a man so casually, knowing how capable he was of hurting anyone around him.

Maybe she was the exception, good for her. 

Maybe that exception had an expiration date, he didn't care. 

There was only one logical conclusion the ice mage could come up with, and it left him feeling revolted: the merciless and cruel, notoriously brutish Kurogane was more than likely her lover and that made her just as much a hostile adversary, in Gray's eyes.

He would not let down his guard again. 

xGx

It wasn't very long before she returned. In the back of his mind, Gray did wonder what kind of meeting could last less than five minutes, but he was still so unsettled by the revelation he'd stumbled into before, he didn't have much in the way of curiosity left.

She went to unlock the cell again, but Gray threw out his arm, latching onto one the bars.

His grip wasn't so strong that he could force it closed, but he did have enough strength to offer a bit of resistance, and that she noticed. 

"I don't think you should come in here anymore."

"Yes," she sighed, endlessly patient, "Juvia knows how much you value your space, but your limbs cannot support you enough to help you reach your tray, which Juvia mistakenly left out of your reach–"

"No," She was wrong on that last front, but that were not what he was getting at, "Just don't come in here." 

She slid down in one fluid movement until she was eye level with him, her seemingly bottomless concern visible when she asked, "What is bothering you, Captive-san?"

Some of his stupor seemed to shake off at the irritating nickname and he answered bluntly, "I'm not bothered, but he's made it clear, he doesn't want you in here with me."

Almost comically, the girl turned and looked over both shoulders, then above, then below , as if a freakishly fast, semi-invisible judgemental man was hiding just out of her sight, then she asked, "Who?"

The same delinquent bastard almost every member of Fairy Tail would happily give up a year's salary to pay him back in kind for the hurt he'd caused Levy and the others, for the damage he'd done to the guild. 

Instead he settled for, "Your boyfriend."

In all honesty, he thought he'd given her a clear enough hint, but as the clock on the wall tick-tick-ticked! behind her, and she continued bouncing her weight on the balls of her feet, mouthing his words back at him as though tasting a foreign sample, Gray grew tired and he huffed, " Black Steel! "

" Hm ?" Her eyes went wide, before Juvia waved her hand dismissively, "Bla–? Oh, no. Captive-san is misunderstanding, Gajeel-kun could never see Juvia in such a way." 

"I saw the look in his eyes, he was ready to kill me on sight."

"That's just his resting face," she shrugged, reaching up to try and unlock the door from where she squatted, without any success. 

"He pulled you out here the second he got the chance," Gray argued. 

"There was a meeting, Juvia was already aware, she simply lost track of time."

"And yet you're back so soon–" 

"The meeting was unexpectedly canceled."

How dare she pretend –! "He was openly flirting with you–!" 

"No, we simply share a fondness for corny banter. Juvia cannot express this enough, we are just friends."

"Guys don't interact with girls like that when they're just friends." Gray reiterated, unsure why he was taking her denials so personally. 

He did not care in the slightest what their relationship status actually was, he just didn't want her back in close quarters with him again, and this seemed a good distraction.

He had believed she'd be slightly ashamed, maybe shocked he caught on so quickly to the intimacy that blossomed so clearly between the two, thinking he wouldn't notice. But, of course, Gray had an eye for those sorts of things, it was pointless on her part to even try to hide it from him. 

When it came to relationships, he had a sort of sixth sense, that's how he knew Freed was in love with Erza, while Erza still held water for Mirajane, and Happy and Gramps had an elicit backroom thing they thought no one else knew about, on the side.

Yeah, he was that good. 

The only thing he hadn't expected was the Phantom girl lying so boldly; it was almost a talent the way she stilled her face in an effort to hide the truth of her pining for Black Steel, but alas, such theatrics would never work on his carefully trained eyes. 

The Rain Woman tilted her head this way and that as if weighing his words before she shook it, still unsure, "Do you not interact with the women members of your guild?"

"Of course I do, b–"

"Is there no humor between you, no room for riffing?"

"Yeah, bu–"

"You feel no concern when they are hurt or disappointed?" 

"I just wouldn't comp–" 

"Certainly you aren't suggesting you date every one of them," Her grip on the bars turned her already pale fingers bone white at the knuckles, and her dark blue eyes widened until her pupils were mere pinpricks.

There wasn't much room to back away, but the maker mage still tried.

"From what Juvia has come to understand, Fairy Tail is a rather sizable guild. How would you even find the time to interact and romance all of them? Especially when you are such a prominent wizard in your guild? The scheduling overlaps alone would make such a feat not only admirable, but downright record breaking!"

Her voice had gone shrill near the end, that wild look intensifying, and Gray was reminded sharply of a single scene, before their fight (?).

If he could even call it that.

But he did recall something just like this happening; he'd said something off the cuff, she'd worked herself into a tizzy, and the next thing he knew he was the proud resident of Cell Block #1.

"I just thought you two were a thing, alright!" Gray shot back, shuffling fruitlessly until a painful twinge in his side told him to stop before he faced irreversible consequences, "If you say it's nothing, then fine, I believe you!"

In the span of two seconds the girl's emotions seemed to change again, and Gray was left baffled trying to decipher it.

She stood then, taking her place just beyond his cell, though her voice continued to float through his small space as if she occupied it as well, "Perhaps Captive-san does not have enough experience on the subject. Juvia has tried flirting before, but it was never with him."

xGx

Gray didn't really know what to make of their last conversation, but that hardly mattered. 

Between Black Steel's appearance and her familiarity with him, the ice mage's cool wall of indifference had built itself up once more, this time twice as adamant.

The Rain Woman had cooled considerably as well, unfortunately rather than leave her aloof and unbothered by his newfound backbone to continue his hunger strike, the Rain Woman's concern for him seemed only to double.

"–and there were studies," she prattled, as she'd been babbling for close to an hour, sitting in the hall, leaning against the bars of his cell, once she realized Gray hadn't touched any of the food she'd brought, "conducted last year that over 73% of all hunger strikes lasting more than 48 hours resulted in horrifying mental decline and then instant death. Men from Fiore simply aren't built for it!"

"I'm from the Northern Continent." 

"That's even worse!" She decried, flipping through her stack of papers quickly, "You're biologically dispositioned to have weak blood–!"

"Not your problem." 

"–skinny ankles, balds spots by thirty, missing teeth by thirty-two, a tiny black heart in the face of cute girls with certain hair colors, a puppy allergy, a terrible singing voice, periodic deafness, a peanut allergy , color blindness, chronic stripping, nausea in place of experiencing the very normal emotion of any and all joy, a terrible taste in tropical button-up shir–" 

"I said… Don't. Worry. About it." He ground out through a clenched jaw. 

"You will become skin and bones!"

"Maybe that's one of my life goals, and you're just standing in my way."

"Lack of nutrition has made you delirious already!" She cried, like Gray's skin had erupted in hives, "Here," The bluenette grabbed up the spoon through the bars, before shoving it into his face as she was so known to do, "At least lick off a bit of the pudding on here, the calcium could help clear your thoughts."

" I like them foggy ," He seethed, and slapped the spoon away.

"You like… ?" 

He watched while she worked to suppress a sigh. "Perhaps it is too much to expect you to eat right now, we are at the most difficult hour of the day for regular digestion, Juvia understands how it is."

He had no comment for that.

"But please, at least use the balm, Captive-san," The bluenette gestured to a glass jar, the same one she'd tried to push on him yesterday, "wounds should never be ignored, no matter how minor–"

"This stuff?" He picked it up for her viewing pleasure, "I dumped it all out this morning, straight in the toilet. I wasn't sure if it was really for wounds or just a large quantity of congealed mucus collected from around your guild. And of course, I wasn't willing to take the chance," His voice turned sweet, " You understand how it is ." 

It was a lie, the jar was just as full and weighted as when she'd first given it to him, and he knew by the smell it really was some kind of balm for injuries, probably expensive given just how large the container was, but he was in the mood to push, so shove he did. 

Her eyes narrowed then, "This has gone far enough."

Gray blinked, surprised but spitefully pleased, by the quick change of her mood. She stood up then, and declared, "You are purposely being a poor sport, and it is uncalled for."

The ice mage actually managed to huff out a laugh at that, in part because his throat was still so dry a full-on gawf wasn't possible at the moment, but also because the idea of her confused frustration genuinely amused him.

He looked her up and down, curious to know in what situation would his antics actually be called for?

She visibly collected herself, turning to leave as she announced, "Juvia will get more–"

"And Captive-san will throw it all out, again ."

She paused, one foot midair, probably weighing if he was really capable of doing something so maliciously destructive. 

Her foot came down, a clear sign of her faith in him. "Captive-san is owed his distress in this unfortunate situation, but taking it out on your own body is foolish," She looked a second away from pulling her own hair out, such was the reaction of many when first interacting with a wizard of Fairy Tail for a prolonged period of time. In fact, he counted her among the strongest ones to last nearly two full days, unbroken, "The least that Juvia is asking for is you to do, is take a bit of medicine before your chest caves in from either starvation or infection. It isn't even oral this time! Certainly, we can come to a compromise on that? Right?"

Gray sat there, considering her words, but only as seriously as the situation called for. He'd hate to step on any toes again. 

As everyone knew the best way to protest was by doing it exactly the way the person you were protesting directed you to do it. 

That was just common knowledge. 

He cleared his throat, loudly, theatrically, before pulling in a deep inhale and replying quite deliberately, " No ."

" What do you gain by behaving like this? " She sputtered, "You've refused every little gesture that could make your imprisonment even mildly bearable, from the blanket, to the cot, to the food, to now medicine. Medicine! Juvia simply cannot make ends or tails of your thin–!"

"Then let's consider this together, really brainstorm for a bit." He started picking at his nails, enjoying this little moment of contention more than any of their prior interactions so far, "Maybe the problem I'm having doesn't have to do with the food or the medicine, maybe I recreationally spend my days and nights, whittling away my time on Earthland in a prison cell, just for kicks. Maybe everything that's happened in the last two days is the norm, and the only thing left out of place is you."

Her lips parted, just as Gray looked up to take note of her expression, disbelief visible. 

"If we really wanna run with this hypothesis, why not put it to the test? Rotate in a few options as chief warden, and collect the results at the end of the day? It could be anyone, your best friend, your worst enemy, the cook, the village idiot. Hell, it doesn't even have to be a person , if you catch wind of a particularly competent squirrel outside, why not give them a chance at something exciting enough to write home about? In that same vein of non-human entities, bring back Black Steel, I'd love a few hours alone with him ."

He started off this little rant with the intention of being sarcastic, but the more he spoke the more he liked the idea. Maybe he had more subconscious restraint on how far he was willing to go against this girl, and that was why his resistance had been bordering more on tantrums than actual force, since he'd awakened yesterday morning.

While she had kidnapped Lucy, the blonde had never mentioned any acts of abuse on the Rain Woman's part. One second she was on the street, the next she was in the tower, that's how Lucy explained it all happening.

And since then, Juvia hadn't been the bloodthirsty overseer Gray would have expected, would have known how to fight against. Instead she acted as some form of pseudo-caretaker and that threw him off more than open hostility ever could. 

But Black Steel? 

Shock alone had kept him from attacking the most brutal member of Phantom Lord on sight, and then the interaction between them had been so brief he hadn't quite managed to get over it in time, before the burly man had left with the Rain Woman for some supposed 'meeting' . 

Gray got the feeling any prolonged interaction between the pair would end up like flint dancing around a spark, and that might be just the sort of environment he needed to push him into fighting his way out of here, no holds barred. 

"Captive-san…  does not wish to have Juvia h–"

"No." He cut in bluntly, more sure the longer he thought on it, "I'm not taking anything you give me. And I don't want to be the focus of whatever soul-saving conservation project you've thrown together in that little head of yours as some pointless way of washing you of the things you've done in Phantom's name. Make that bastard come down here and watch me, instead." 

Her lashes fluttered, blinking rapidly while her fingers started fussing with the doll at her throat, over and over. Then she turned abruptly, right on the spot, and stalked over to the chair she usually occupied, grabbing it up roughly. 

Her voice was softer than before, when she said, "Whether you like or not, Juvia is here to stay–" 

"Then consider me a very displeased guest, truly appalled by the blatant lack of respect towards the wishes of your clients. The reviews I have planned for this place will be scathing."

He expected some form of backtalk, even the overtly polite kind the woman before him seemed more prone to, however his wit was met with pointed silence, besides the steady skree-skreee! of chair legs as she moved it directly under a candle holder. 

He watched and waited, certain he was misinterpreting something, before he asked, genuinely flabbergasted, "Are– Are you ignoring me?"

She didn't make a peep of acknowledgement that she'd heard him. 

The ice mage scratched at his chin, eyes wide, he couldn't believe –

"Are you serious?" 

The stiff set of her shoulders didn't budge one bit when she sat down, mouth set in a fine line, before pulling out a book, thick and dark, and hiding her face behind the pages.

"Really? Wow. I just– I mean, do you think you're the oppressed party here?"

"…"

The unmitigated gall of this woman. 

"Y'know what? This is great! This is exactly what I needed, what I wanted actually, that's why I brought all that shit up!" He announced, doing his best to sit up so she could hear him loud and clear, " That's why I made you eat that food I'm now 10,000% sure was poisoned all along! And your obvious workplace romance with that homicidal maniac – what did you call him? Gajeel-kun. Yeah, don't know why you'd lie about something anyone with eyes could see, but you grew up in a culture that encouraged midnight ambushes and daylight kidnappings, so..."

"..."

His tone turned cutting at her continued silence, "You two are really cut from the same cloth, aren't you? Just one and the same. I mean, your kids will probably be hideous little shits, like lab accident-level ugly, but that's en vogue at Phantom Lord, right now, isn't it? Mean, brutish mugs, all slack-jawed, with skin the color of paper. That's what you cross your fingers every night, praying for. I know it is, I am so on to you!"

He thought he saw her roll her eyes, but as that wasn't a verbal response, he decided it didn't count for anything. 

"Well, hate to burst your little bubble over there, but you can ' t ignore me, wanna know why?"

"..."

"Of course you do," He answered himself quickly, "It's because I'm ignoring you! "

"..."

"And you deserve it too! This silence you're gonna hear, the hours of nothing I'm about to give you– Well, I almost feel sorry about it, but you brought it on yourself! "

"...."

"Exactly. Exactly . You aren't prepared, but here's a little something you need to know about me, maybe jot this down for later: I'm a petty person, Rain Woman ."

And Gray continued his unending tirade of silence for the next four hours, until he eventually fell asleep, marking his second night in Phantom Lord's dungeon just as unproductive as the first. 

Chapter Text

xGx

Now that his kidnapper was officially ' not talking to him' , Gray was free from any and all distractions, or mindless small talk.

She still sat stubbornly in the hall, chair facing his cell, but she no longer kept a complete unending watch of him, choosing instead to bury her face in some book, as though somehow her silent treatment was the real punishment in all of this.

Meanwhile, Gray was practically left to his own devices, and he used this time wisely.

While the Rain Woman had given him a run-down on his first night of why his position at the bottom of Phantom's dungeon was an insurmountable task that he couldn't possibly conquer, Gray had since then made the unilateral decision to ignore just about everything she said.

It's not that he completely doubted her word, oddly enough there was a part of him that believed she might have over-shared there in the beginning, but it was very easy to weave lies between truth, keeping your enemy so far down mentally that they never realized they were in a prison made of cardboard, rather than stone.

The ice mage refused to fall victim to such tactics.

So, he decided to start fresh, wipe the blackboard of all her suggestions and collect some information on his own, and plan his escape from there. 

Here's what he learned:

Number 1.: Gray's cell was at the very end of a rather long corridor of cells. He knew this because more light from the sconces bounced into his cell than the one slightly across from him and to the right. 

The candlelight was only strong enough to pool out directly in front of it, in the hall – which the Rain Woman used for reading – and just beyond his bars. 

It wasn't the most important fact he'd collected, but still, at least he had some bearing of where he was.

Number 2.: The opposite direction, the one the blue haired woman constantly disappeared to, had a staircase somewhere, that led people out of here.

This was important, Gray had listened carefully each time she disappeared and arrived, particularly when it was time to eat, because he could hear her hesitancy as she carried down those heavy trays to him, before confidently striding the rest of the way towards his cell. 

He was still unsure of the exact number, somewhere around two dozen on his last count, but he knew they were steep and old, and he knew of their existence and that was all that mattered at the moment. 

Number 3.: There was a door.

He heard the heavy squeaks of old hinges all the time, with other members of Phantom Lord seemingly popping in to give her some signal that Gray couldn't see. 

Interestingly, he never heard a lock.

But the ice mage wasn't foolish enough to believe Phantom would just leave the vault wide open. More than likely there were runes at play. Probably some nonsense about Only Members of Phantom Lord Shall Pass , or else, Enemies Of Phantom Lord Beware, Thou Will Be Fried Within An Inch Of Their Life Should They Breach This Point.

He put nothing past them.

But it was ok, Gray had plenty of time to adjust his plans as he thought of them.

Perhaps instead of bottoming out the cell and watching the little bluenette plummet to central Earthland, he'd get her to re-write the lock so he could get through.

Maybe use her as a human shield, who knows? 

Those kinds of details were still kinda up in the air.

Number 4.:

…

Well, there was no Number 4. Not yet anyway. Things in the dungeon seemed to go by like clockwork, exceedingly dull and never changing.

There weren't as many hints dropped as he would have liked, if he were being honest. 

But rest assured, that wouldn't be enough to keep Gray from busting out of here, the second the opportunity arrived. 

He just had to wait…

xJx

How did things end up this way?

All she'd wanted to do was get closer to the mystery man of ice, the frosty prince who could turn her kingdom of isolation and endless rain, into something beautiful, something worth living for.

Her perfect half . 

But in all her blind infatuation all she'd ended up doing was taking advantage of an already injured man, while leaving the other members of her guild to fend for themselves and ultimately lose.

Juvia sighed, then groaned, stomping her feet in place with frustration. 

Perhaps if she'd been thinking straight, she'd have noticed there was something wrong with him earlier, or even had a moment of clarity and left him in the care of his own guild, trusting in fate that they would one day meet again. 

Instead, between one second and the next, Juvia lost focus for an entirely different reason. She wasn't even thinking when she ran towards the voice, a booming call of action, that Master Jose had three seconds to give up and agree to a truce, or else anyone Fairy Tail decided was an enemy would face the consequences.

Juvia didn't know what that entailed really, but she knew there were no circumstances on Earthland that could get her Master to give up his crusade against Makarov Dreyer's guild. Which was unfortunate, because the water maiden could recognize powerful magic when she saw it, and the magic circles that began forming in the sky showed all signs of being Lost Magic.

She'd run before her Master in a thoughtless rush, shoving him out of the way and, for once, ignoring his screams of displeasure.

He thought he could handle it.

She knew he could not.

There was a moment of total stillness then, when the old master of Fairy Tail missed a beat in his count and Juvia didn't move, not sure if she was ready to handle the cost of her rash decision, and in that moment they locked eyes.

She felt completely out of her league, like a rabbit trying to lock horns with a bull, but she wasn't trying to hurt him, not really. 

She just wanted all this to stop.

And the only way out she saw was to get them away.

So she took advantage of that single moment of hesitancy, that slice of stillness, gathered all her concentration and shouted, " Water Cyclone! " 

A tunnel of water shot out of her body, straight towards Makarov Dreyer's chest, pushing him clean off the pile of rubble he stood on, out the broken window behind him, and out of sight. 

From there, she didn't stop to assess if that had been enough to keep him down. She had other plans.

Running the rest of the way up the stairs, Juvia stood squarely in the middle of the dais there, and activated the magic circles. 

She knew the mechanics of the guild well enough to operate the motor, and get Phantom moving, away from Fairy Tail, out of their little beach, through West Forest, using Mt. Hakabe's position to the north as a guide. 

Her intentions had been to go back to Oaktown, but once she got it going, the guildhall seemed to take on a mind of it's own, literally. 

First by draining her magic greedily in its own mad rush to repair itself; she watched walls, roofs, and windows reform before her very eyes, leaving no evidence of the fight behind, as if nothing had happened. 

She may have been able to handle that if it had stopped there, but once everything was back to normal, it continued syphoning off her magic, this time to increase it's speed.

Juvia hadn't been aware Phantom Lord could move faster than two miles an hour, creaking and creeping it's way to a new location whenever Master Jose wanted to pull out all the stops in intimidating his enemies. It was always an offensive move.

The other day the guildhall must have realized they were on the defense, because it reached within her deeply, taking all it could get to propel itself forward. 

Going 50, 65, 77 miles –

Just when she was sure she was going to collapse, completely drained of magic, strong hands came down on her shoulders.

Gajeel Redfox caught her right before the black spots took hold of her vision, and hooked himself in her place, so she could collapse nearby.

Juvia was well past exhausted, by then. She'd laid on the steps adjacent to the steering dais like it was a bed fit for queens, eyes shut, body numb, deaf to the shouting and chaos around her, until one voice cut through all the din to reach her. 

So, you're saying no one knows where bubble boy came from? 

Her eyes had snapped open then like someone had kicked her in the chest. 

The water maiden had completely forgotten about him until Sue pointed him out, grabbing not only her attention, but the notice of their guild master as well.

Already enraged for having to retreat from a fight Juvia was certain her Master thought he would win handedly, she could see the bloodlust in his expression when he'd realized the prize trapped right in front of him. 

The next thing she knew, the possible man of her dreams was declared an official prisoner of war. 

She had no say in the matter, besides asking to keep watch over him, a request her Master was thankfully too distracted to care about.

So, that's how it happened but… 

In all that, what had she actually accomplished?

Three quarters of the Element Four were left on the mend.

Master Jose was furious and humiliated, lashing out at anyone who moved, when he wasn't holed up within his office.

And the man she thought was the love of her life, looked at her with absolute loathing and contempt, almost from the moment he'd re-awakened. 

It was the kind that burned right through her and reminded her sharply of all the other failed relationships of her past, because she wasn't good enough, because she kept trying when all they'd wanted was for her to disappear, because she was gloomy. 

But if she were being honest, this had less to do with all that, this time. The man down in the dungeon hated Juvia only for her actions, and no matter how many times she turned them over in her mind, she knew they were reprehensible, not at all what she'd wanted when she'd first trapped him in that sphere of water.

She couldn't blame him for his reaction, and there was nothing she could do to prove he wasn't right, that she hadn't already tried… 

A loud bang on the kitchen door broke through her thoughts, and Juvia had to suppress the little squeak that worked it's way up her throat at the sight of the newcomer in the doorway.

" Finally ."

Gajeel.

Turns out there was no meeting yesterday, there has never been a meeting yesterday, Gajeel had made the whole thing up.

When Captive-san had questioned her last night, rightfully suspicious that the meeting they had to rush off to had only lasted five minutes, she'd managed to put on a politely bemused face, waving away his concerns like boogeymen in the daylight.

The truth hadn't been quite so neat. 

Master Jose hadn't left his offices more than three times since they'd gone rogue, and none of those times was he pleased to be reminded of his fellowship with Phantom Lord's lot. 

He hadn't called any kind of meeting to give direction or some hint of where they all went from here, rather Gajeel had forged his signature and plastered the walls of the guild with a false sign-up sheet and reminders Not To Be Tardy .

And she'd fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

" Get rid of him. "

"What?" Juvia had been so confused by the sudden change in demeanor, she'd actually looked back to see if things could have somehow managed to shift just by walking through a doorway, as though it were a portal or something .

He pulled her a little further into the stairwell, away from the door and closer to the boiler room where it was harder to hear over the sound of the ancient machine inside choking and puffing as it tried it's best to heat the guild hall.

"Look , no one is more proud of you for taking some initiative against those sparkly Fairy scumbags, but your little game of house has gone on long enough."

Juvia blinked, not sure what he was getting at.

"He ain't ya boyfriend, he isn't even a prisoner at this point; Jose's so far gone he probably won't even notice his absence once we get rid of him, but he is a hindrance and ya can't keep him like some goldfish you won at a street festival."

She couldn't meet his eyes then, throat thick with emotions she didn't have the time to sort through, "…He is injured." 

"Not our problem," Gajeel stated bluntly, "Look, no one's saying it, so I will. We're damn near on our last legs. We've got limited supplies, the old man ain't releasing anyone from the guildhall, so we can't get work. We don't need a charity case on top of everything else, especially one from the pixie guild, ya get what I'm saying?"

She did. And she didn't like it.

Her lack of immediate response didn't appear to sit well with the dragon slayer, "Wakey-wakey!" He snapped, clapping his hands sharply in front of her eyes, as if her focus was anywhere but right there, in that moment, "This isn't one of those meet-cutes from one of yer dramas, Puddle. We are in deep shit."

Juvia rolled back her shoulders, doing her best to feign some assertion,"Juvia will see to his needs herself. She has some money saved up, and it is no problem for her to give her share of the supplies over to him, at least until he is better or we can leave him in a safe, neutral location. From there…"

She didn't know. Perhaps she could send his guild some sort of signal? Coordinates and an urgent S.O.S. so he wouldn't be left languishing alone, at least. 

He quirked his lip to the side, looking her over for a moment, "Don't tell me…" 

Her stomach dropped, the unease she'd been feeling since yesterday doubling over itself. 

"Damn it, Ame-Onna." His thumb worked a nerve just under his brow, pushing the studs towards his spiky hairline while he roughly massaged the area. "Less than two days alone wit' him, and he's already got ya around one of his fingers?" 

Her face burned, less from direct shame and more at the realization she was apparently so transparent, "It's not like that…"

She hadn't felt like explaining herself, but the pointed look Gajeel directed at her, demanding she elaborate before he take matters into his own hands regardless, compelled her to explain, "He is unavailable for… He is already spoken for… by the Heartfilia girl," the bluenette mumbled, recalling all he'd said during their battle on the rooftop, regarding the blonde, "He has already made bold, open declarations regarding their passions, he would stop at nothing to protect her, and Juvia has no reason to believe that feeling isn't mutual."

His assumption that the water maiden had begun to fall for him… wasn't as out of left field as she'd like it to be, but she saw no reason to give Gajeel a run-down of her silly longings, he'd probably just tsk at her stupidity. "He doesn't need to be jostled or alarmed right now. Juvia only just got him to agree to eat, and even that improvement seems shaky at the moment. You need not worry about any additional strains for the guild, Juvia takes full responsibility for him. And she will say as much to Jose-sama."

Not a conversation she was looking forward to having…

"But Juvia will not simply ' get rid of him' not in his moment of need. If only for her role in dragging him into this mess in the first place, she will do all she can to nurse him back to health."

Whether he wanted her to, or not. 

An odd glint began to shine in the older boy's eyes, and Juvia felt immediate unease, "If it's guilt yer feeling, we can remedy that real quick." A sharp smile flashed, increasing her sense of misgiving, "Give me five minutes alone wit' him–" 

"Absolutely not." 

"You don't need to lift a hand, Puddle," Gajeel grinned, raising his own in a cruel parody of a scout's solemn oath, "I don't even need five minutes, three and a open window–"

"Gajeel-kun." 

"Alright fine, I won't beat his ass first. One good right hook, and we toss him overboard."

"Gajeel-kun!" 

His amusement only seemed to grow in the face of irritation. 

" Juvia will not negotiate this. If Gajeel-kun so much as touches him with ill intention, you will have Juvia to reckon with."

He looked a little surprised at the ferocity she responded with, but just quickly dismissed her with a scoff, looking more amused than even before, "I'm supposed to be scared of ya now, Rain Woman?" 

The water maiden had already pulled herself out of his hold, stalking back the way they'd come, before she replied honestly, " Yes ."

Since then he'd been trying to confront her on her own, going so far as to send other members down to the dungeons under blatantly false pretenses, to try to get her to talk to him.

All of these attempts had been neatly dodged by the water maiden.

Until now. 

"I know I ain't winning any spelling bees around here, but I'm far from stupid, Puddle. What the fuck are you thinking?"

Juvia continued beating her spoon around a bowl of whatever it was she was making, movement frantic and sloppy, as she stared down into it, unseeing.

"Juvia appreciates your concerns," she mumbled, "but upon further review your suggestions have been wholeheartedly rejected by the cou–"

The dragon slayer spluttered for a moment, clearly not expecting that response, "What are you not getting? We. Cannot. Keep. Him . When it came to Bunny Girl, we had her old man's go-ahead, at least, that was a job , but this is different. It's been three days. The last thing we need is The Magic Council down our back, we could face charges! We could wind up screwed, or worse disbanded ."

Yes. She knew all this. She'd been thinking about it all day! 

"Oh sure, when Juvia makes one tiny little request , we all have to live by The Good Book, but when you went and hunted down the one team in that whole guild that couldn't fight back–!" She hissed, just as angry at herself but unwilling to take on the full brunt of their situation alone, "We were already on thin ice when you destroyed their guild, add that little ambush on top and we've well and truly broken through, so don't pretend you have such a concern for regulations now, Gajeel-kun!"

For his part, Gajeel tsked, turning his head away stubbornly, "Just cause they was cryin' foul, don't make it true."

Juvia didn't respond. 

After several seconds of tense silence, the older boy tried again, "You know the geezer's running around, trying to come up with a plan, right?"

She nodded once.

"I don't know what happened, but somehow that old man got under his skin. Whatever fight they got into wasn't like last time."

"Well, of course not," The water maiden sighed, pulling the skin off the sweet potato halves, before adding it to a bowl to be pulverized, "Jose-sama was nowhere near the guild when they broke in before, and he had you and Aria-san there to take care of it, then. Juvia honestly doesn't believe the two masters have ever come to odds like that before, in all their time as wizards." She tossed out the scraps. "How is Aria-san by the way?"

"Same as Sol and Totomaru, still down for the count and out of magic," he grunted, rolling an egg around the counter absently. 

Sol and Totomaru… 

They should have bounced back by now, she was sure she'd seen the fire user at least lucid a few times, but without Aria there to heal them, they would have to take the slow route to get back to 100%... 

She thought Gajeel was going to comment on what terrifying strength Titania must be capable of to keep the strongest member of the Element Four out of shape for so long, but instead he looked up suddenly, mind clearly elsewhere, "Did you know Salamander was a dragon slayer?"

"Yes."

She'd read up on Fairy Tail for a full week before they'd made their first move, wanting more information on the members, to know who to watch out for before going after Lucy Heartfilia – that was part of the reason her not knowing Captive-san's name was so frustrating, she didn't recall seeing him in any of her extensive research, what else had she missed?

In the end she decided they were all a bit too dangerous, and waited until she was alone.

Turns out, it was more than likely the right move, making Juvia quite the adept kidnapper, if the last two incidents were any indication.

"He was trained by a real dragon, too."

"Oh, really?" While Juvia had never doubted his past, many others in the guild were quick to turn their jealousy of Gajeel's strength into fuel to power their rumor mill, denying that any dragons had roamed Earthland in the last four hundred years and that he'd gotten his power from a lacrima or something, and invented the story so no one else could achieve what he had.

He always claimed it didn't bother him, thrashing anyone into a stupor who was foolish enough to spread such rumors in his presence, but Juvia was acute enough to notice when he'd eventually stopped sharing.

"Yeah," he sighed. "I mean, the guy was a dope," Gajeel supplied quickly, as if to sow doubt into his claims, "Apparently he's still running around looking for him, thinking there's gonna be some grand reunion, 'cause he can't come to terms that he was abandoned."

"His dragon left him, too?"

Gajeel lifted his head to look her directly in the eye, before leaning in, "Not only did his dragon ditch him, you'll never guess when he did it."

Juvia dropped her spoon, mouth agape and whispered, " July 7th? "

"x777." The iron slayer nodded grimly.

"So… there must be a connection! Perhaps, Metalicana-san didn't leave with the intent to abandon you, maybe…"

"What, you think they both went off to a conference and lost track of time?"

"Juvia doesn't know what to think, besides there's a clear connection and you should investigate further. Maybe you two can go looking tog–"

"Lemme stop you there. First off, if I ever catch sight of that fire-eating bastard again, I'm paying him back for these," he gestured to the cuts healing along his face as well as the bandages hidden under his shirt that Juvia had helped him tend to earlier, "and I'm gonna be generous with the interest added. Second, I have no interest in tracking down that deadbeat. If he wanted to find me, he'd sniff me out. He hasn't bothered in damn near a decade, so that's that. We're done with each other."

"Gajeel-kun…"

"Don't," he cut in sharply, jabbing a finger at her chest, "I'm not looking for your pity, Puddle, I just thought I'd make some small talk. Get your mind off the prison sentence you're looking at if we don't come up with a plan, and fast."

Juvia rolled her eyes, and watched, mildly amused to see the slight surprise Gajeel showed in the face of her sass. "If you do not wish to speak about this subject, fine. Juvia understands how sensitive this is for you, but the prison thing… Why does everyone go there?"

"Because you've snatched up two people now in the middle of the day, within the span of a week," He said slowly, deliberately, placing his arms on the counter, as though he needed to steady himself, "and now you're keeping one of them captive like some demented game of house. That's a goddamn crime . There are movies about this kinda shit, and none of them end happily. Some people might even end up  touchy about it, press charges and all that."

"So Juvia has heard," she replied sardonically, recalling the hour the ice mage downstairs had spent rattling off different infractions he'd have her imprisoned for, as well as the things she'd done that weren't crimes yet, but he'd spend his life lobbying for until they were.

He'd just kept going and going , until he eventually passed out. The bluenette was surprised to find herself smiling when he did.

She shook her head quickly. 

This was serious, and she should give it all the somberness it deserved. "Juvia wanted to apologize for startling you that day," She heard from some of the others that Gajeel had barely finished his fight when she'd accidentally kicked the guild into overdrive. 

"Nah, we was on the north side when you got this thing moving again. I was surprised, not gonna lie, but it wasn't the worst thing I've been through..." He shrugged, grabbing up an apple, before giving it a sharp sniff and dropping it where he'd found it. "Salamander, though, he has some serious motion sickness issues. I kicked his ass off somewhere around 65 miles an hour, just to make sure he was plenty dizzy in his way do–"

" Gajeel-kun! " This was exactly the sort of thing she was talking about, why did he have to take everything to the extreme? 

But rather than shrink at the sight of her displeasure, he bared his teeth at her playfully and chuckled out, "You shouldda heard him scream, gihee! "

"That isn't funny."

"Weird, I crack up every time I think on it." As if to extenuate his point, he burst into another round of his signature laughter.

The water maiden took this time to pointedly ignore him, choosing instead to add sausages to the stove and blend the sweet potatoes with chicken stock, then cream, until it was like velvet on the back of her spoon. 

"He called him, Dad… "

Juvia blinked, refocused on the man across from her, with his face so somber, "Hm?"

Gajeel slapped his hands on the counter suddenly, startling her, and stood, "Nothin'. Look, try to get that brain running sometime before we're surrounded by Rune Knights, alright? I'm sick of making the trip over to Era."

The bluenette glanced out the window, just beside the stove, curiously, and took in the endless mountain ranges and wilderness shrouded under dark gray skies, that greeted her, "Juvia thinks we may well be on our way there now."

"Great," he grumbled, "gotta re-steer the old man before we corner ourselves in a jail by mistake."

He headed for the swinging door before Juvia called out, "Should she save you some soup? Or there's sausage, blistered just how you like it."

"Nah, I think I'm just gonna sit on the roof later. Maybe check out the clouds. I've got a toolbox hidden up there if I get hungry."

"Once again, Gajeel-kun, you don't need to leave your things in odd corners around the guild, no one is going to steal and eat your hidden supply of iro–"

"Yeah, 'cause I hide it–"

"Oh, goodness , we're not having this conversation again!" Juvia said impatiently, dismissing him with a wave of her hands until he was out the door. 

Now alone, Juvia prepared yet another tray to take downstairs, knowing full well, their new prisoner would no more eat it than a stray worm. 

xGx – Dinner

Another cloche, another waft of steam, another stare down.

There was a slot at the bottom of the cell door, allowing her to slide it through without much contact between them, something Gray hadn't noticed before they'd descended into their silent standoff.

He really wished she'd used it earlier. 

Along with a bowl of bright orange soup was a plate of blistered sausages and sauteed cabbage. Beside them sat a dark green bottle, some kind of alcohol he'd guess, and a new squat brown jar of the same ointment she'd been pushing on him, since day one.

It was odd how she could look at him with such a deadened stare, not only because all the food she presented sat in direct contrast to her air of irritability, but also because she had no ground to stand on for being so annoyed in the first place.

She decided to cut their ogling short, standing straight up in one quick movement, before taking her seat across the hall.

Despite himself, this caught Gray's interest, "What, no speech?"

No response.

" Come on ," Gray pouted, sarcasm dripping from each syllable, "I might have been convinced this time. After all, 87 is an unusually lucky number."

She sighed, but said nothing.

"Well, guess there's nothing going," he shrugged, adjusting himself so she was his entire view, silently determined to turn the tables on their situation a bit. "Maybe Black Steel's fist really will be the first thing I swallow down here." 

He'd kinda gone on a bit of a tangent yesterday, insisting that if Black Steel had been his guard, he'd have eaten anything the violent boy gave him, to which the Rain Woman replied, breaking her silence just once the whole night, that the only thing ' Gajeel-kun ' would feed him was the knuckles of his right fist. 

For all she knew, that was his favorite snack, and she was standing between him and an excellent meal.

"At least have a bite," She piped up suddenly, still not looking at him, "You may well die of malnutrition before anyone upstairs lays a hand on you."

"Oh, she isn't mute!" The ice mage cheered, grin broadening when he noticed her brows dip, "I thought that I was going to finally finish my bingo card of strange personality traits. You've collected so many already: flagrant kidnapper, inept nurse, wild mood swinger , the board just keeps filling up before my very eyes. You claim to have beaten me in some fight, so I'm feeling pretty confident you're also into sucker punches, I'm just waiting for the evidence to waltz on down here, as I'm sure it will eventually, and then, bingo!"

The Rain Woman's eyes remained fixed on her book, but he did notice them flash in annoyance. 

Good. It felt amazing to shed his frustration, especially if it was onto the person who'd caused them to begin with. 

"All Juvia has done is try to keep you healthy–"

That was quite a bit of revisionist history there, did she honestly believe he'd just let the whole pill-swallowing-incident from Day One go?

"–Juvia does not want to question you or harm you in any way, your stubbornness is getting in the way of your health. You are putting yourself through an unnecessary trial, when you could be up, walking and–"

"Walk where ? I stretch my arm out too far and I've hit the borderline of my new waterfront property," Gray groused, demonstrating what he meant by throwing out his hand until it hit solid stone. "Is there some amazing place I'm missing out on just beyond these bars?"

She looked more stubborn than his throwaway question called for when she replied, "Juvia will answer almost any question you have, so long as you eat."

The ice mage rolled his tongue over his teeth, "Then I guess it's gonna be pretty silent down here." 

"Juvia supposes so."

The minutes rolled by without another word passed between them, but this time, it wasn't due to Gray's determination for a stalemate; it was quiet because the young mage was thinking.

Her offer was tempting, that he couldn't deny.

He stood by what he said earlier, nothing she said could really be trusted, he would need to roll over her words with a fine tooth comb, double dissect everything, evaluate late into the night, but still, her offer was tempting.

Gray's investigation abilities were limited and only seemed to shrink with every hour he spent in this two-by-four, he didn't want to go to sleep that night knowing he hadn't managed to add a fourth fact to his list. 

While the steam slowly drifted and died, and the Rain Woman's stack of read pages began to dwarf the unread ones, Gray made up his mind and cleared his throat. 

"I have one question actually."

She looked reluctant to acknowledge him; hell, she looked reluctant to look at him. But she did, eyes narrowing a bit while she looked him over and asked, "Yes, what is it?"

"How'd you get the hose in here?" 

She blinked, turning to face him more fully, "Hose?"

"Yeah, the jet of water you sent my way, first night here. How'd you manage it?" It was cruel and unnecessary, and it seemed like a lot of effort to lug whatever had damn near waterboarded him, ten minutes after he'd come out of a coma, all the way down here. 

"There was no hose."

"Alright, a weapon then." It made no difference if it was a magical tool, or an odd feature of the dungeon meant to spark conversation amongst guests; she'd tortured him with it.

Frustratingly, she just shook her head. "You are misunderstanding."

" Really ?" Gray asked, not hiding his irritation. He hadn't really bothered to try before, but… "What exactly am I missing?" 

"Juvia…" She pointed to herself, eyes wide, expression almost doll-like as she explained, "Juvia is the Rain Woman. Her body–" She slid off her seat then, down to his level and raised her arm, sliding it through the bars up to her elbow, so he could watch as it went from paper white to entirely translucent, bouncing candlelight around his cell in a multi-prism spectacle, while the liquid warped and waved. "Juvia's body is made entirely of water. There was no hose. Only Juvia."

Oh.

For some odd reason – well, it wasn't all together odd, but – Gray hadn't realized her powers went beyond what her nickname hinted at.

The Rain Woman could obviously control rain. 

An all together silly power, but not one he was really willing to judge. Maybe there were some uses in starting thunderstorms at will, he'd rationalized, the best way to stomp down the spirits of your enemies could very well be having all their plans for picnics and outdoor concerts thwarted right before a big battle was about to take place. 

Now he knew this wasn't the case. 

Her body was made of water. She had complete control of water… That was frightening, something he'd obviously need to look out for if he planned on fighting her head on.

In a battle between ice and water, who would really control the element? 

She continued holding her arm out to him, while the ice mage tried to wrap his mind around what he was seeing, until the moment went on a bit too long and turned awkward.

Then she withdrew, standing to her full height, arms corporeal once more, before she shuffled back to her space across from him. "When you are ready to eat, let Juvia know."

Something else seemed to connect in his mind then, the image he conjured up stark and unsettling. 

"Are you saying… I swallowed you?" That couldn't be right. Surely, there was some kind of filtration system set up in the cuffs of her coat, perhaps she summoned the water from a third party or something, maybe it was all just a misunderstanding again… 

"No."

He felt the breath returning to his lungs, " Oh ," Gray laughed, relieved for the first time in nearly four days, "ok, because I tho–" 

"It was more like you choked and gagged on Juvia." The Rain Woman went on thoughtfully, "She had no idea Captive-san was so inexperienced –"

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" If he could feel his legs, he'd have jumped up by now.

The Rain Woman wasn't picking up on his mood. "Well, based on the flailing and panicking you did," she shrugged, leaving him feeling smaller with each word uttered, "Juvia would cautiously guess Captive-san does not have much talent in the ways of w–"

"I'm gonna stop you right there." His ego demanded it. "I have had– plenty of experience, thank you very much.

"Alrigh–"

"And not just with swimming. All kinds of things! Things you couldn't conjure up in your dizziest daydream! Things with parental guidance suggested!"

Her head tilted to the side, almost like she lost function of her neck, "Juvia is not following…?" 

"Yeah, of course not! Because you lack experience. And honestly, it's really sad you have to project your insecurities on others– Juvia , was it? –on others, Juvia. Maybe that's something you can reflect on when you're given your very own bunk bed in Era."

She rolled her eyes and the ice mage was genuinely shocked – it was the most sass she'd displayed since he'd got here. She was astonishingly sincere in her actions, now that he thought about it. 

"Are you ready to eat yet, or not–?"

" Not ."

She gave him a patiently disagreeable expression, like a school teacher who'd caught the local paste-eating child once again scarfing down some of that forbidden white goo, "You agreed to eat in exchange for answers. Juvia has allowed you seven questions, she expects at least seven bites."

If he didn't know she was made entirely of water he'd have given her seven hearty bites on the leg. "A wise woman once told me that unless it's in writing, it doesn't exist."

Although calling Cana wise was a bit of a stretch, even clocks running entirely on booze were right at least twice a day.

The Rain Woman sighed.

Not like she'd been thoroughly outsmarted, more like she was beginning to realize that her lifelong ambition of teaching a herd of ostriches to read was going just as poorly as everyone had always warned her it would, and the truth was only just then starting to make itself known to her.

The sound set his teeth on edge.

She sat up neatly, giving herself a hearty, impassioned shake, before plastering on a brand new expression of patience, and replied, "Alright, then." 

And she was nose-deep in her book once more. 

xJx

"…because I don't actually hate it. Really my entire ire against it – it's almost superficial. Y'know, it's more about the conversation , that unique sense of comradery with strangers when you loudly announce in a crowded plaza on market day how much you can't stand golf, and suddenly 80 hands go up to declare that yes , they can't stand it either. I really don't know of any other topic that can garner such a universal reaction, and until I do, golf will just have to take it's punches, I'm sorry."

He was talking to himself.

He'd been talking to himself a lot in the last 24 hours. His topics varied wildly, bouncing around as his mind thought up whatever bothered or interested him, in the moment.

Juvia wasn't entirely sure why he hadn't picked up his tirade against her from yesterday and early that morning, except mindlessly threatening another person who blatantly couldn't care less about a word you had to say seemed to have stolen quite a lot of the wind out of his sails. 

So instead he settled on golf.

She hadn't tortured him – at least not on purpose – why was he allowed to treat her so poorly?

"Captive-san," she began, subtly checking her ears for any residual blood, "perhaps you were unaware, but those sausages aren't spicy. They're more of a smoky sweetness which Juvia finds to be universally compliant with most taste buds."

"I was aware of that," He replied readily, as if he'd been counting down the seconds to the moment he knew she would break her silence,  "Here's something I'm actually curious about: if you're so ashamed to call him your boyfriend in public, why're you going out with him?"

Dark blue eyes bored into him, before looking down pointedly at the tray of food still sitting in front of him.

She'd already fallen for this little trick before, did he honestly believe that she would do so again, just because he started asking inane, ludicrous questions, rather than interrogate her about incidents she felt rolling guilt over?

No more answers without food, that was her final stance. 

His jaw twitched in response to her look, giving her a clear signal that he had no intention of meeting her demands.

She pulled her book up further. 

Silence reigned for a steady period of time, before he inhaled deeply and began, "Some people say zoos aren't ethical…" 

She inhaled deeply, certain he was going to link his unfair and morally-dubious capture in with the many outspoken conservation efforts to keep creatures in their natural habitat, pointing out that if wild, violent beasts deserved freedom according to most, than clearly the water maiden was insinuating that he was the lesser of both animal or man, some wiley third option, a demon or a delinquent that ought to be tased and beaten into compliance right down here, just outside of society's scope of decency.

Instead, he started talking about penguins.

How he appreciated the close proximity to his apartment (just within walking distance!) and the babies were fluffy and confused, who was really being hurt here? Plus he had a stamp card, visit two more times and he'd get to feed the baby penguins, and right there all the hours those protesters had put in to change the minds of the masses had been lost, because there was no way he was missing out on feeding Hanleng-De and her brothers some sardines. 

She exhaled. 

Captive-san's motivations were clear. He did this because he thought his constant ramblings annoyed her, breaking her concentration when she was so clearly focusing on an activity that required silence. 

In truth, Juvia actually felt the opposite. While golf had been a deliriously dull subject to want to broach, it was also the only topic he'd ranted about where Juvia actually got any reading done.

Once he'd stopped his verbal tirade against her and started pulling different points of interest from thin air, the water maiden found herself drawn into his musings and views as if she were a part of an enthralled audience, waiting and listening for fresh nuggets of knowledge to be dropped in her presence. 

She found she very much liked his voice. Some words were accented differently from what she was accustomed to hearing, no doubt a result of his upbringing in the north. 

She often wondered if Fiorian was his second language, it was common enough for it to have been his first, spoken all around Earthland as it was, so perhaps the informal roughness layered and swirled between lilting, well-rounded speeches were also a result of his upbringing. 

Aside from his speech patterns, Juvia just enjoyed the tones he made, his words pulling and dragging as he grew tired or even bored of whatever he was speaking about, before diverting his own attention somewhere else and recapturing his own passion.

Her book worked especially well to hide her smiles. He was funnier than Juvia would have expected, his humor more dry, often giving a sarcastic commentary of the ridiculous things that went on around him, deemed as normal, that he believed should absolutely not be.

He had issues with things Juvia hadn't thought to be against, like Fiore's constitutional monarchy. A branch of government that apparently did nothing in terms of lawmaking or protecting the nation. He declared it an outrage! Were his taxes just paying to keep a strange old man draped in velvet capes and pretty jewels? Then he'd like a note attached to his little stack of cash, insisting the pampered preponderant shove his head in a pumpkin and dance around the city square for his own amusement.

She had no idea where he came up with this stuff, for one thing preponderant was an adjective not a noun.

But she was amused nonetheless. 

His skepticism for those who held power didn't stop at Mercurius Castle, he had questions for the Magic Council, too. 

For instance, why would the Magic Council allow two wizards under 25 to join their ranks when every other member needed to keep a spare set of dentures hidden under their desks at all times? Sure, one of them was a Wizard Saint, but that didn't explain the woman. Did they come as a pair? What kind of leverage did Siegrain have to insist on her appointment? Where was the list of her qualifications? Why weren't wizards allowed to vote on which bitches (his word) made up and enforced the laws they all had to abide by?

Then he corrected himself, noting that he understood why Fairy Tail wasn't given any voting power, but that shouldn't extend to everyone, honestly you (Juvia) ought to be outraged!

Honestly, Juvia couldn't remember the last time she felt true, impassioned outrage, though many people might comment her life in-and-of-itself might qualify for the emotion.

Yet here he was before her, ready to dole out a bit to every little thing that annoyed or inconvenienced him, from the public's insistence that everyone must be clothed shoulder-to-toe or else expect a refusal of service – she couldn't make heads-or-tails of why that would upset anyone, it seemed a reasonable enough decree – to his local ice cream parlor dishing out half-scoops for the same price the full scoop used to cost not even a year ago. 

Another outrage!

Juvia was careful in hiding her mirth, she traced her eyes along the lines of her book, unseeing, turning the page every so often, when the moment felt right.

He didn't seem to be aware of her preoccupation, but her suspicions leaned towards the idea that hunger was dulling his senses, rather than her outsmarting him.

Why was he so determined not to eat?  

"…not my favorite," He went on, tapping his nails along the stone walls, "They're not scary per say, but I do not trust animals with teeth larger than mine, just as a general rule. Have you heard about the June-Crow scandal?"

Juvia turned the page. 

"Yeah, well, it didn't make the headlines the way it should have. I blame their press agent. The man is 98 years old and determined to make skywriting the dominant advertising medium. I asked him, well, what about cloudy days? And he threatened to shove a plane so far up my ass it could use my tongue as a window wiper. Now, why he doesn't apply that level of creativity to newspaper articles, I'll never understand ."

Juvia bit her tongue to control her expression, turning another page. 

"Anyway, the June-Crow scandal goes as follows. Once upon a time, there was an otter, found abandoned and underfed floating belly up in the ocean. As we all know, many otter species can adapt between salt– and freshwater, however, this species in particular was strictly made up of freshwater otters, and so, she had no business being out there, and to this day no one can say for sure how she ended up there in the first place.

"Eventually a little family came across her, saw her struggles and alerted the proper authorities. The authorities decided that she was basically on her last legs and returning her to her natural habitat would get her killed sooner rather than later."

Juvia blinked, realizing she hadn't moved as she should have, and turned another page. 

"After a month of watch and rehab, she was deemed fit enough to be taken to her forever-home: Magnolia Zoo and Safari. There, she was healed to full health, taught to swim, fed regularly, and eventually her story became so prominent her likeness became the zoo mascot. Children traveled far and wide to see her. I traveled down the street, which is a lot of effort on my part, let me tell you.

"Everything was great, until– Well, an incident occurred."

The bluenette wondered idly if that incident involved his guil–

"Some people like to blame Fairy Tail…"

Well, that cleared that up.

" I , however, am not one for the finger pointing game." Captive-san shrugged, fluffing the lumpy pillow under his neck.

While completely ignoring the plush one she'd given him just yesterday, why–?

For that matter why didn't he just use the cot, he was so clearly uncomfortable. Was maximizing one's discomfort a point of pride where he came from? How far did that philosophy go? Did they stick needles in their birthday cakes, and boast about swallowing enough to be detected by machines? 

His madness seemed to know no end! 

"So, after this accident – where no investigations led to formal charges, thought I'd add that – occurred there was a bit of chaos. Flying rainbow fish with the lemon leopards, bats bunking with dolphins, the rodent pit was empty yet the bellies of every resident in the ghost owl exhibit were full, that sort of thing. And of course, our poor little June was not spared.

"This little otter, the only one that stayed put during the chaos, was found three days later, in a corner of her exhibit, wrapped in the belly of a beast."

She was eaten?!

Captive-san nodded as though he could see her thoughts, though his eyes were shut, " The Black Mamba . A snake so deadly it could wrestle a Vulcan into submission if it looked at him wrong, could kill a person with just two drops of venom. This thing was long and powerful; they found him looped up tight in an enclave June slept in every night, five rings high, with nothing but her head sticking out between his coils."

…That didn't sound like she was eaten, why would he make her panic like that?

She turned the next page. 

"Of course, once the zookeepers discovered them, they worked to get him out of there before something terrible happened. He couldn't just stay , it wasn't safe for her, it wasn't safe for the other otters. Unfortunately, luring him out wasn't as simple as the experts were expecting. No one could figure out why, but Crow – that's his name by the way – had taken a liking to the innocent June, going so far as to make himself at home in her nest.

"This wasn't a simple case of unlikely friendship, mind you, this snake was known to hurt his companions, that's why he had a solitary tank in the most isolated part of the zoo. Yet they kept him; he brought in plenty of jewel from the unregistered psychopaths that enjoyed watching spontaneous animal fights. Anyway, everybody agreed it was unnatural, no one thought it was a good idea, but they couldn't seem to move him. Eventually, wizards were called in to knock the little bitch out, and they took him home. Everything was back to normal, balance had been restored. The end, right?"

Right.

" Wrong ."

Juvia held back a gasp. 

"When Crow came to he flew into a fit, smashing his face into the glass, thrashing around. They couldn't figure out the cause of his little tantrum until someone passed by with one of those giant June plushies. He zeroed in on it, calm for the first time in ages, so they gave it to him. 

"But it wasn't enough. He ripped the thing to shreds and went right back to his frenzy. They knew what he wanted, but they refused to give in. The brutal beast wouldn't take no for an answer though, biting and hissing and spitting venom at them during every interaction.

"Then one night, he'd managed to sneak out, immediately breaking into her sanctuary, fangs bared at her adopted family of otters, before pulling her off to the side and wrapping her just loose enough to keep her breathing, but never enough to escape his hold. When they found him, they went through the same process all over again, getting a wizard and all, but they knew they couldn't keep this going. Blue Pegasus has fees like you wouldn't believe . 

"So they came to a compromise. They couldn't get rid of him, no other zoo wanted to deal and he was deemed too brutal for the wild. June couldn't go back, she had a pack and a home she loved. So they came up with supervised playdates. Whenever he went crazy, they'd go and get her, bringing June to his enclosure, for the safety of the other otters, and she would spend her time there until they could distract him long enough to pull her away, or else when he got bored of being around her."

That sounded like a terrible compromise. 

"Of course the public – the ones who knew to look up at the sky for updates on the zoo, anyway – were outraged at the poor treatment of June, certain that the little otter would become food one day, when Crow got tired of playing nice, but to their disappointment there was nothing the zookeepers could do to stop the snake, short of putting him down.

"And to this day, June is forced to pick up and leave everything behind at the drop of a hat, the moment Crow deigns to call for her company, even if he only wants it for a five minute meeting…"

Juvia froze. 

Captive-san shook his head tragically, eyes open once again, gaze now directed towards her, brows pulled up in deepest regret. "A toxic relationship if I've ever seen one. Now, let me ask you, does that remind you of anything in particular? "

She refused to believe… That whole story… He couldn't possibly be making yet another utterly ridiculous allusion to her and Ga–!?

Juvia turned yet another page, this time firmly and soundly, in an effort to cover her rather audible and disgruntled huff, teeth clenched like a vice. 

"Maybe the moral of that story was a bit too ambiguous," Captive-san sighed, genuinely concerned, "Here, let me tell you another. Once upon a time, there was a dolphin named July–" 

"Eat. Your. Food."

His eyes looked slightly wild when he replied twice as deliberately, " Make. Me. "

The water maiden crossed her legs, expression resolute. "You would not appreciate Juvia using force, Captive-san, as we've already established you are a terrible swimmer, and your muscle mass at this time has shrunk too much for you to learn on the fl–"

"Is that the only way you know how to do anything around here?!" He asked, outraged once again.

"You said make me, " the bluenette repeated, dumbfounded, "how else is Juvia supposed to interpret that?"

"I meant we could strike a deal!"

"We already did that and you reneged on your part; you still owe Juvia seven bites!"

He turned his head away, then, arms folded, while he muttered something about, "... pulled that number out of thin air…"

The water maiden slammed her book shut, beginning to feel the onslaught of that outrage he was so fond of. She most certainly did not 'pull that number out of thin air', Juvia had counted quite deliberately, excited at the prospect of him gaining even one calorie tonight.

" You will eat."

"Nah," he yawned, stretching lazily and only further gaining her ire when he ignored the cot beside him, to pat affectionately at a corner of stone floor next to him, before curling up, "I already consulted my appetite and it didn't like your tone. Let's try again tomorrow." 

"If Captive-san refuses to feed himself, Juvia will do it for him!"

"You see, it's shit like that that really turns him off, I'm telling you."

" Give me the spoon ."

Juvia froze for just one moment, before whipping her head toward the end of the hall, dread blooming in her stomach. 

"Gajeel-kun."

The iron dragon slayer was back, in person, no substitutions or messengers. "I'll make him eat."

She was already halfway out of her seat at the sight of him, eyes darting quickly to the ice mage, then back again, unable to believe the dragon slayer would circumvent her wishes so openly. 

One studded brow was raised in mild interest at her alarm, but his focus was clearly directed towards Captive-san, "If ya got questions, Princess, I'll answer anything you go–"

" Princess? " The ice mage repeated in warning, pulling himself back up into a sitting position, face pressed up against the bars of his cell, probably trying to get a more direct look at Gajeel, though he was still a bit too far down the corridor to be within his sight, if Juvia had to guess. 

"Yer a damsel, yer clearly in distress," the slayer explained simply, lazily striding the rest of the way, "Yer waitin' to be rescued and ya gettin' fancy food delivered. I mean, if the thing's quacking and waddling it's probably–"

"Gajeel-kun," the bluenette began in warning. He knew quite plainly how she felt on this matter, if he honestly believed luring him out into a ill-advised fight and pouncing then, as if in self-defense would be any kind of workaround for the water maiden, he was playing a dangerous game with her.

The dragon slayer looked back at her with a transparent display of faux-innocence, "I could hear your little spat from all the way upstairs," he tapped an ear subtly, "I'm just here to be of assistance."

If his expression hadn't given him away, Gajeel Redfox managing to get through a full sentence without a single contraction, tone lighthearted and overtly-polite, would have been the flashing neon sign she needed to detect something was up. 

Her face was set.

Unfortunately, Captive-san was not residing in the same galaxy, thought-wise. "Yeah, you're just what I need actually, come right on in. And don't worry about the food, I'm actually more interested in a little chat."

"And whaddya wanna talk about, Pretty Boy?"

"First, you've got a weird obsession with my looks, cut it out," Captive-san stated dryly, "If you're trying to get a rise out of me, the effeminate angle you're working to the bone, isn't gonna work, I'm actually very proud of my bone structure."

Oh, thank goodness . 

"On the other hand, maybe I was being too subtle. I don't wanna talk. I'm inviting you to open the goddamn door, and see for yourself just what three days stewing down here has done for my mood. You seem to have so much fucking concern for me, once again, open the door. "

Juvia sighed. 

Gajeel huffed out a laugh, "That's where you're wrong, if it were up to me you'd be face down in a hole of your own making, a family of maggots feasting on yer face." Juvia smacked his arm, but he paid her no mind in turn, too busy leering down at the ice mage, "Wouldn't be no fight, Fairy." 

"However much you think you know me, I can hold my own against the likes of you."

He scoffed, "That's funny. All I see is a heap of skin and bones, flapping it's gums."

"Wanna bet?" 

She could not believe this! Juvia watched, flabbergasted, while the man in the cell reeled to his feet unsteadily, the toll of three full days without food or beverage clearly taking a hold on him now, yet he was geared towards a fight, salivating for it. 

She'd never in her life met anyone with such poor survival instincts, he ought to be studied! 

There was triumph layered between the usual gruff tones of Gajeel's voice when he bit out, "Look at that! Finally grew some teeth, I guess. Last time I saw ya, ya looked like a skeevy little rodent in a cage, and the time before that– That was when the whole gang had arrived right, to try and rescue blondie or you'd pissed your pants over yer guildhall coming down like a stack of cards or whatever. Remind me, how long did our fight last, then?"

Captive-san's jaw worked, but Juvia was more concerned about the look in his eyes. He really planned on fighting Gajeel, didn't he? 

"I think I might have spared a good ten seconds on ya when I knocked you clean into that big-mouthed oaf. Looking at the state of ya now, even five seconds would be drawing it out, whatcha think?"

"I think you're talking a lot. Which was not what I would have expected from someone as vile as you. Words are pretentious, given what a rotten bastard you are, I had higher hopes than this."

"Oh, I'm a bastard, am I?" Gajeel purred dangerously, gaze sharpening, "Practically scum…"

"You're worse than scum. You attack from behind, you don't spare women, or comrades, or innocent bystanders. I guess you think the world is just an open vault where you take what you want, whenever."

She knew Captive-san thought he was calling Gajeel out, but the truth was, he wore a lot of those facts like a badge of pride.

Also, she distinctly remembered him telling her that he wouldn't go easy on her ' just because you're a chick' , did he have no memory of that? 

"I mean look at the way you treat the people closest to you!" He went on, swaying slightly on the spot, "You didn't even spare a moment for your Precious Puddle. Y'know, she's wearing a new dress today, would it kill you to give her a compliment? Show her some appreciation for all the effort she puts in, day in and day out?"

Gajeel paused, expression slack. 

Her poor Captive-san, he really needed to eat…

The dragon slayer turned to Juvia then, asking in an undertone, "The fuck's he talkin' about?"

Juvia's tone was equally muted when she replied, "He appears to be under the illusion that we are entangled in a romantic tryst…"

The iron-eater nodded, not like he thought that was reasonable, more like some dots were beginning to connect themselves in front of him, and he did not like what he saw. "You always did like 'em stone-cold stupid, Ame." He remarked, disappointment clear. 

He stepped back up to the cell, some of the wind clearly knocked out of his tirade as he actively tried to shake off his shock, "Apparently, talking to you ain't worth it. And by the look of ya, fighting you even less so, it'd be like getting in a cage fight with a wet paper bag."

"That's fine."

Juvia wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but knew better than to do so at this point. Not until there were three floors between them, would she relax.

"As a matter of fact I hope you get comfortable." The ice mage nodded, expression mocking, "Take a load off. You've dropped your guard, probably thinking you're safe, maybe even slapped up some runes to protect yourself and this shitty guildhall, not realizing that Oaktown is less than thirty minutes from Fairy Tail. The moment they figure out a way around your little protections , they'll be here full force, and you'd better hope you've only got Elfman to deal with then, because if Erza gets a hold of you, she won't  let up for even one second. Your face will be firmly under her boot, on her way to taking out that ghoul you call master."

Silence followed these words.

Gajeel turned to Juvia then, while she worked to avoid eye contact with the pair of them. 

The dragon slayer's reactive cackle was boisterous, disbelief clear, "You ain't inform your boy toy on what's been goin' on, have you?"

Juvia shook her head sadly. He refused to cooperate, that was her only reason. She would have explained everything plainly, but Juvia had hoped keeping him in the dark would give her enough leverage for him to eat something and use the medicine she'd provided.

No such luck. 

She could tell Gajeel relished telling him the ugly truth, his grin only would have appeared natural on a hyena. "We ain't in Oaktown."

The ice mage blinked, confusion clear, "We can't still be in Magnolia…" 

"Try again."

Irritation flashed across his face, but it did a poor job in hiding his panic, "What, you want me to pick blindly from a top hat or something, there's about a million towns in Fiore, we could be in any one of them!"

Gajeel nodded, slowly, deliberately.

It took a moment for the dragon slayer's hints to click, and Juvia saw the exact moment it did, real dread appearing in his eyes. 

Captive-san placed a hand against the wall; it looked like he was using it to try and hold himself up, but Juvia suspected he was really testing it, trying to feel for any vibrations in the wall, something that could signal whether Gajeel was lying or not.

Though the guild was more steady at its current pace then when it labored and shuffled at much slower speeds, every so often one could feel a rolling hmmmm-bmp!. It was subtle, something easily passed off as the pipes gurgling, the boiler humming to life, or maybe a building's natural settling noise, but once you paid attention, could actually identify what you were hearing and feeling, the guild hall's movements were unmistakable. 

She watched as his skin blanched. 

" Oh , where's the big man now?" Gajeel whispered, antagonizing yet edging on genuine wonder, as though Captive-san had honestly disappeared from his sight, "How fast things change, you find out we've been on the move since before ya bothered to wake from yer little beauty sleep, throwing a little wrench in all those plans you were relying on, and suddenly you've got all the backbone of a jellyfish. Don't tell me he's more mouse than man now without his big-mouthed calvary behind him?" His head tilted, tongue caressing a sharp tooth, "Y'know, you and me can still play if ya want." 

As easily as Juvia could fold a piece of paper, the dragon slayer placed his hand on one the bars separating the two and bent it back, giving him uninterrupted access to the cell and the man within. 

Immediately Captive-san stumbled back, clearly startled, until he landed on the cot, eyes wide, while Juvia tossed her book aside, heart pounding, body already prepared to attack while her mind worked frantically to catch up. 

But their panic was apparently unwarranted.

Gajeel bent forward, ignoring the man in the cell completely as he grabbed up the dinner tray she'd prepared. Shuffling off the brown bottle of ointment with a disinterested grunt, he pulled back, tray in hand, before bending the bar back in place neatly.

Juvia and her charge were frozen, practically paralyzed, while Gajeel used his smallest finger to uncork the bottle of honeyed mead, sniffing audibly once he got it open.

As if he could feel her gaze, he turned, bright red eyes clearly amused at the moment of hysteria he'd caused, before shrugging casually, "I changed my mind. You know damn well yer food's too good to pass up, Ame-Onna."

Juvia's breathing picked up, her arms still raised at the ready. Then she tried to voice her outrage, but failed spectacularly. 

What was she supposed to say? How dare you, a scary monster, pretend for even a moment that you are a scary monster? 

Her expression must have said more than her tongue was capable. 

Sharp teeth flashed at her before they tore into a bit of charred sausage, ripping it apart heartily, "What? It ain't like yer boy toy plans on having any, why let it go to waste down here? I sure as hell ain't gonna pass this over for Sue's Tuna Surprise ."

The surprise was that Sue could manage to wrongly identify anything that came out of a can as tuna in the first place.

Juvia had once made the mistake of trying some, in an attempt to make a friend, and spent nearly a month in the infirmary after choking down three bowls of fermented-pork-brain-cranberry-sauce-refried-bean ' tuna surprise '.

As if remembering her misfortune just as clearly, Gajeel's smile widened.

Then his gaze flickered back to the man in the cell, "Y'know, this place is crawling with hungry, restless, vile bastards just itching for a bit of fairy blood under their nails, you'd be better off being a little nicer to the only one here that still gives a shit about keep her humanity intact." 

And with that he waltzed away from them, down the hall and out of the dungeon. 

xGx

Gray resettled for the night, eyes fixed on the soft glow of the dying candle as it swished and swayed along the walls, while he waited for the heaviness of his lids to win out.

Today had been… something.

He had good news and bad news.

The bad news was the rescue party he'd been counting on as his first choice of escape from this place, probably wasn't going to happen.

At least not as soon as he would have liked. 

Everything seemed to fall into place when that bastard Black Steel revealed Phantom Lord had been on the move since before he'd awakened.

Of course Fairy Tail was delayed, they weren't just hopping down the street and through a forest to the next town over, they had to track this place down, probably relying heavily on eyewitness accounts, with so many of their heavy hitters still down for the count.

The bad news was a disaster he'd prefer not to think about. 

As for the good news, well, as small as his goal to gather more information had been, he'd actually managed to exceed expectations. 

He now knew the Rain Woman controlled water, was made from it, in fact. This was rather devastating to discover, and he still mentally shied away from it, hoping that perhaps she was simply very skilled in optical illusions. 

The alternative was too difficult for him to come to terms with; in his current state, he had less than no chance against her, he couldn't even cool his own skin, let alone Ice Make: Excalibur. 

Then there was the guildhall itself, working to keep him trapped. Not only would he have to go through her, and the runes, and the members upstairs – possibly extending to their guild master, Gray would need to find a way off their giant moving building , currently racing across the country at breakneck speeds. 

With good news like that, why even bother with the bad? 

Chapter Text

xGx

Being held captive was often very dull. 

It was a lot of staring blankly at the ceiling until a point in your back hurt so much it rallied you to bother turning on your side, to stare at the wall next to you until your shoulder ached something terrible, and then rinse and repeat.

Given the situation, he really wasn't in the position to complain or make requests, but by Mavis would it kill them to at least supply some cards? 

He wasn't asking for a care package or an entertainment bundle, or anything, it's just that in Gray's mind it simply made sense to supply some kind tool to occupy his mind away from thoughts of escape. 

Leaving him to own devices was bound to give him the time, space, and opportunity needed to come up with a groundbreaking, dare he say innovative , idea of not only breaking free and busting out of here, but also single handedly defeating anyone foolish enough to try and engage him in a rousing tussle of fisticuffs on his way out. 

Allowing such an oversight to exist so blatantly honestly appeared a little irresponsible –  and novice-like – on his abductors part. 

All these observations could be said and jotted down for review later, but unfortunately there was a rather glaring obstacle standing in the way of all these reflections bypassing the theoretical phase; Gray wasn't having very many thoughts at the moment… 

His stomach wound still hurt, yes, and while that was distracting it didn't make up the bulk of his absentmindedness, the truth was far more humbling. 

Gray Fullbuster was feeling emotionally neglected.

Emotionally and literally because what the hell was taking Fairy Tail so long?! 

He been here four fucking days , if his memory served him right, the pink-haired pyro had up and knight-in-shining-armored his way over to Lucy within two hours of realizing she was gone and had her back, safe and sound, before Mira had even cobbled together a dinner menu that day.

And they'd only know the girl a little over a month! 

Meanwhile, ol' Gray Fullbuster was sitting here on his last legs, and he'd been a staple of the guild since before that bubblegum-haired asshole had ever taken a single step over the threshold!

Was the fact that Phantom Lord's guildhall being constantly on the move, an issue? 

Yes. Of course it was, but the more Gray thought on it, the more he became convinced it was a mild inconvenience at best. 

For one thing, how fast could the creaky old building even be going? He watched it approach Fairy Tail's private beach just like everyone else, and at max speed, it could have been surpassed by a snail.

Easily .

Meanwhile, Erza was known to knock down mountains . He'd personally experienced her chasing down a speeding train using nothing but a stolen magi-mobile and the spare magic strumming through her veins, just last month.

And that was just one girl.

Fairy Tail was a guild full of crazy-ass bastards just looking for an excuse to overwhelm what a single person should be capable of. 

Together, they weren't just a force to be reckoned with, they were every known natural disaster, smashed together and unleashing an all mighty battle cry, gleefully beating at the war drums like it had done something personal to their mother. 

Now he was supposed to believe that a stumbling, ancient decrepit guildhall had outmaneuvered them? 

No. The ice mage was beginning to suspect a lack of motivation on his comrade's part.

Part of the reason Gray had had the strength to turn his nose up at, quite frankly, some of the most delicious food he'd ever sniffed out, wasn't purely because of pride; he'd honestly believed he'd be safely tucked in, tight and snuggly, in Fairy Tail's makeshift infirmary in the basement by now, while one person tended to his boo-boos and another spoon-fed him soup! 

…Forgive him, his thoughts were a bit unfiltered and fuzzy due to a lack of calories needed to keep his organs functioning.

Anyway, at this point he was genuinely beginning to think he was on his own here. 

The only person who appeared concerned about his well-being at the moment was the one who'd dragged him here in the first place! 

Over and over, no matter how hard he glared, or what (justified) vitriol his spat, the Rain Woman dutifully entered his cell, presented him a meal they both knew he would reject – they appeared to have come to an unwritten rule, that the two of them would just blatantly ignore how vocally his stomach protested his hunger strike – and attempted to see to his wounds, before he slapped her away like an angry cat.

Each interaction was becoming weaker though, the bite he'd come in with when he'd believed a guild's worth of heros on white horses would show up and cart him off to freedom had waned in favor of a man who was hard pressed to reject grilled salmon, wild rice, asparagus, and a chocolate torte on the side… 

If that little loaf of fresh bread had come with a pad of slowly melting butter on it last night, he wouldn't be the steely-eyed man he was today. 

For one thing, he'd be fuller. 

Every so often a little voice in his head tried to convince him that it wouldn't be weakness to take what the girl was offering, if anything it would be strength. 

He'd recover faster, think clearer, all the while using up his enemies' limited resources for his own gain, and then waltz out of here once he achieved 100% recovery and they were left fighting over a water cup for sustenance.

It had some pretty valid points, he could admit. After all, it wasn't normal for Gray to sit around staring at a lit candlestick wondering if the pink haired pyro back home might have been ahead of the curb culinarily and the rest of society were just cowards missing out on a readily available snack.

One of the things that held him back was the fact the voice always seemed to show up around the same time those trays did, wafting along their scents.

Clearly the voice was under the influence of some pretty heavy stuff while dishing out it's advice – never a good sign.

Another thing that couldn't be ignored was that Gray was stubborn.

Past the point of reason, beyond the scope of his own well-being.

He couldn't help it, it was how he was raised.

Born of parents who stubbornly refused to live in a climate meant for human habitation despite not being mages in their own right, and doubling down by bringing an infant into that same environment, as if to snub their nose at common sense and logic.

Taught by a woman who insisted the only real way to learn ice magic was by throwing off your clothes, trekking through the nearest tundra without alerting any of your neighbors or close friends about your whereabouts, and spending some nights sitting directly in the line of a blizzard unprotected, despite the dozens of books and guides Gray'd come across later in life that stressed that was the fastest way to die on the planet.

Raised by a guild whose whole philosophy was to finish a job by any means necessary; laws, morality, and a basic understanding of ethics be damned. 

Sure, maybe along the way you accidentally flooded a city, dishousing thousands, getting you banned from the entire county, and accruing a financial debt incomprehensible to most accountants, leaving many business majors in tears that you somehow managed to keep the guild afloat. That was ok, because at the end of the day, a nice fish family had a home to be proud of and that was the entire point of the mission you'd agreed to. 

So no, he wasn't eating anytime soon. And if that meant he wouldn't be leaving his cell of his own volition, so be it.

His pitiful, starved face would make for better ammunition to emotionally guilt trip the people he'd come to know as family, anyway.

And perhaps, that would make it all worth it in the end. 

Chapter Text

xGx

He caved.

Chapter Text

xGx

Day five dawned in the same muted tones as every day before it, and yet Gray couldn't find it in himself to lie and say it was just as bad as every other day.

Maybe having a full day of eating behind him did more good for his mood than he was willing to admit, maybe it had to do with the injury on his side seeming to heal into something less throbbing and now merely prickly. 

Whatever it was, Gray found himself less prone to sneering when he woke that day. He sat up on his cot – yes, he'd caved on this too, and in all fairness he should have done it sooner. Another night on that floor might have left in need of physical therapy, what the hell was he thinking?

On the other side of the bars sat the Rain Woman, just like always, sitting back straight and proper in her chair. 

He never seemed to see her sleep, the only time she wasn't before him was when she left to get food, which didn't leave nearly enough time to get a nap in. Otherwise she was there, round the clock, eyes trained on her book. 

"Is it good?" He asked suddenly, the words coming out before he could stop himself, though he wasn't all together frustrated over his moment of thoughtlessness, sure he didn't want to spend another day alone in his head. "The book, is it good?" 

She blinked, either surprised that he was awake or that he was speaking to her like a human being for the first time, he couldn't tell, but she answered him simply. "Juvia wouldn't know."

Simply and puzzlingly. The ice mage felt his jaw twitch in irritation, before making the deliberate decision not to react immediately and instead slowly pick the sleep from his eyes.

5AM and these were the kind of games she wanted to play…

Alright.

"How could you possibly not know?" He asked, impressed with the faux patience he was able to display in his tone. 

"It's enchanted," The Rain Woman explained, showing him the cover of the dark blue, leather-bound book. A large rune was the only ornamentation on the cover, glittering subtly in the candlelight, "Juvia received it as research for a job she was supposed to complete last week. The mission date may have fallen through a bit, but it doesn't hurt to do the work, if they're still willing to take her… when this is all over." She twirled her fingers to encompass their current situation, before her eyes slid back to her book.

Despite himself, despite the reminder of what he was going through, Gray was curious. "So, what? It's blank?" He scooted closer to the bars, hoping to get a look.

How much research could you do on a book with no words?

"Not blank," Juvia corrected, flipping it around to show both pages almost running over the margins with words, "It– Basically, the rune reads the wizard, and then cultivates stories it believes the reader will like. Truth be told, there's an infinite number of stories inside, the size of the book really belies what it's capable of. Juvia has started and stopped four different stories that seemed longer than the dictionary, just to explore it's prowess in other genres. Sometimes it's based on magic, other times the reader's imagination, but every time it's personalized. That's why Juvia doesn't know if it's interesting, per say. It suits her taste but many people might not find it all that entertaining."

"Well, we could solve that right now." Gray announced, flopping on his back, head landing on his folded arms. "Read it to me."

What could it hurt? His schedule was looking just as blank today as yesterday and the day before, maybe this was just the stimulation he needed. 

Seconds went by in silence and when she didn't respond he popped open an eye, "Oh, I'm sorry," Gray amended, realizing his mistake, "read it to me please. "

He didn't expect the girl to react so strongly to what he believed was a very mundane, if not dull, request, but within seconds her face had turned beet red, eyes like saucers.

Consider his interest piqued.

"What? What's wrong?" Gray asked, popping a second eye open to scan her reaction more thoroughly, "If you think I can't handle a book without pictures…" Well, if she thought that then it was his turn to dish out the silent treatment, he'd given her no reason to think he was as dumb as a doornail. 

Besides a slight squeak, she didn't respond, too busy trying to bury herself face first in the spine of her book. 

In that moment something occurred to him and the ice mage rolled onto his stomach, "Don't tell me," he began, wicked grin crawling it's way up his lips while he watched her try to shrink beneath her collar and curls, "that the illustrious and formidable Rain Woman of The Element Four spends her free time reading dirty novels ," he accused, voice full of delight. 

"Ju– Juvia never claimed to be those things," she sputtered, voice struggling to escape her while her mortification grew with each second that passed. "And it is neither the time nor the place to spe–" 

Ah, well, that's where she was mistaken, this was absolutely the time and place; he propped himself on his elbows, newly enthralled, "Don't leave me hanging, I'm more curious than ever now. Like, during those scenes, is everything kinda just hinted at, or are we talking length and girth –" 

"Juvia. Does. Not. Read. Filth ." She assured him in a voice so full of conviction Gray knew it could only be a lie, "If there is anything insinuating such activities, well that was up to the author. But Juvia only reads based on the strength of the story's plot alon–"

"But you just said, every story is catered specifically to the person who touches the rune!" Gray challenged, watching dread overcome the girl as she entangled herself in her own words. "If there's anything in there insinuating such activities that's because it tickles you to read about it," he laughed. "And it must really be something if you can't even read it out lo–"

"No, that's not i–!"

"Yes it is. You're into something really crazy, I'm right aren't I?" 

"Captive-san is so far off bas–!"

"I get it!" Gray cut in suddenly with a snap of his fingers, "You don't wanna share 'cause you think I'm gonna judge you. Well, rest assured I can be very mature. Even if you read me dozens of spanking scenes, one after the oth–"

"Breakfast!" She cried, bolting out of her seat immediately, book fastened to her chest, "It's nearly noon already–" 

It was 5:09AM. 

"–and Captive-san requires sustenance lest he wither away before Juvia's very eyes. Yes, food, Juvia will get you food!"

And just that fast, he was all alone.

If he'd known that a bit of quiet only required him embarrassing Captor-san he would have stripped himself bare from the jump, no shame in his game. 

As it was, he'd discovered something far more entertaining than silence or stories. 

xGx – Breakfast

If she thought food was going to deter him, he was pleased to leave her sorely mistaken. 

The ice mage dug into the soft yolks of his eggs with a roll so fresh it felt like the oven was caressing his lips each time he took a bite, only pausing his barrage of questions long enough to swallow before redoubling his efforts to make the woman across from him as uncomfortable as socially acceptable. 

"Now, how graphic are we talking, Captor-san?"

"Juvia neither confirmed nor denied anything, for all you know this book is full of nursery rhy–!" 

"Because, looking at you, I can't really see you going beyond vanilla. But then again ," he chuckled around a bite of garlic roasted red potatoes, "I also never would have thought you'd be brazen enough to read porn right in front of me, so maybe you're full of surprises! So what are we talking? Biting? Chains? Whips?!"

"It's not li–!" 

"Personally, I find it very hard to believe that you could get off on the idea of keeping another person restrained against their will, that seems so outside your abi– Wait, turn your head a bit? Oh! Maybe I am getting a little whips in there!"

With no other excuses available to leave him on his own, the Rain Woman had no choice but to sit there, cheeks puffed and ruddy while he verbally allowed his imagination to run wild. "Still, you've been pretty adamant about tools not being involved, so the only other avenue available would be third-party based thrills. Is that it? Just orgies, orgies, org–?"

"They're in love!" She blurted out suddenly.

He didn't know what that had to do with anything – they were fictional characters. It made no difference to Gray whether they were dancing the sinful tango after 15 years of marriage, or if they'd just met outside a pet store. Hell, he wouldn't give a damn about their relationship status if they were real either, come to think of it.

But this seemed to be an important distinction to the only other person down here, so he raised a brow, considering. 

"They…" She huffed out her frustration, large blue eyes then turning towards him in a silent plea, but as Gray was just as much in a cage as he'd been for the last five days, he ignored her pitiful calls for mercy, taking a long draft from his cup of iced cider, deeply amused.

Her huffing only got louder at Gray's lack of cooperation before she sighed, "It's not just about… that . They meet under dire circumstances, during a war that she blames him for–"

"Oh, they're straight," he mused. " That's disappointing." He'd heard from some very reliable blue-haired bookwormy sources that the really descriptive stuff tended to stray from the heteronormative. 

Maybe she really was reading it based on plot alone. "So he started a war? Why? Pride, anger, spite?"

"That's the thing, he didn't really start it. It's more that he hasn't made much of an effort to stop it. The girl's fiance dies in battle and she blames the prince. Allowing the citizens to die for the crown but the crown never bothering to make similar sacrifices in the name of the people, or even questioning if the war is worth their lives to begin with. So, she sets out to kill the prin–"

"Whoa, what?" His head jerked back a bit in surprise, "Why would she do that, I thought they were gonna be lovers."

"They are, but at first… He represents everything she hates," the Rain Woman shrugged, running her finger along the spine of the book absently, "Sorrow has blinded her heart, so she takes it out on the face of the nation's problems. The royal family. Then a whole bunch of stuff happens and she gets recruited to be his personal guard–

"She got a promotion ?" Gray repeated, flabbergasted, "What the fuck happened there? Was he secretly suicidal? Did he find her especially goal-oriented, aiming for the prince's head and all."

"No, he doesn't know. The prince is mostly clueless to her anger, he only sees her determination while they train together and he admires her for it. Anyway, then he starts to fall in love with her–"

"And the whole time she's plotting his murder." Gray deadpanned.

"So far, yes. But Juvia believes the girl is softening to him, it's just a long road before that happens. Juvia's read close to two hundred pages and they've only just now kissed, and the girl responded by locking herself in her rooms for a few days, so…"

"Well, that's one way to deal with it…" the ice mage hummed, draining the last of his spiced apple juice. "I guess you really weren't lying; that didn't seem all together dirty." It was pretty fucked up the prince was actively falling in love with a woman who wanted his blood on her hands, but that said more about the Rain Woman's obvious penance for casual violence than perversion. "You're a different level of prude, turning all shades of red over one little kiss two hundred pages in." He added. 

Her face went pink and Gray realized that while she wasn't lying, she'd clearly omitted some things. She'd described one story, but she'd already admitted to getting involved in four others, before. 

She'd cherry picked herself into a territory she was comfortable speaking about. 

He couldn't lie, it was a little impressive.

The Rain Woman left him to his thoughts, unlocking the latch to the little gate and pulled his empty tray out of the cell.

She was just about to re-shut it when he asked, "You mind if I read…?"

She stared at him like she didn't understand before his words seemed to finally register and she gasped, "Oh, no, of course not," Then she slipped the book through the slot.

Gray turned it over a few times curiously. There were several bookmarks sticking out of different places, one of which appeared to be a real leaf, now dried a burnished orange. The rune on the front was the size of a small chicken egg, but there was nothing really remarkable about it; the depths appeared muddy and muted.

"So what, I put my thumb on this, or–?" He flipped open the cover to see if there were instructions somewhere within.

"Juvia was told you need to nick yourself, just enough to break skin, and the book will respond then. See the little spokes dotted around the rune–?"

"The book needs a blood sacrifice?" He reiterated, stunned and hoping he'd misunderstood.

"Hm. Juvia never thought of it that way…"

No matter how many times he'd thought he'd figured this girl out, she kept surprising him. How else could she have possibly seen a book asking for blood? She kept turning her head from side to side, as though weighing the validity of his observation.

"Forget it," he grunted, popping the book open at random, "just tell me which of these are for the story you were talking about before," he gestured to the various bookmarks. 

"The silver one, with the snowflakes and the little crown charm? Juvia made it special!" Then she beamed as if overwhelmed with her own work. 

"Right." He climbed on the cot, one arm under his head, getting comfortable. 

"You'll have go back a bit–" 

"Yup. Two hundred pages, I remember."

There was no sound in the dungeon beyond soft paper between his fingers until– "If it's not to your liking, Captive-san, Phantom has a library upstairs. Juvia would be happy to get something else for you. Do you like action? Spy thriller? Train based murder mysteries? Farming?"

Gray tipped his head back, over the cot, to look at her. She was upside down from his perspective, but he could still see her nerves as clear as day. 

The Rain Woman fiddled with the little doll at her neck, looking more distressed than when he'd thrown his food in a fit of rage the first night. 

Which was a little insulting.

"–there's pottery making, personal war stories, first person accounts of the dead coming back to life and swearing they met a celestial god with an overly large mustache even though that sounds like an overly-developed hallucination caused by modern medic–"

"This is fine." 

"Ok."

"Ok."

"Great, Juvia will leave you to it."

"Awesome." 

But he wasn't even five words in before she announced, "We also have magazines –"

"Do you want your book back?" He asked, suddenly unsure he was reading her hints right.

"Oh, no!" She exclaimed, waving her hands wildly. "Juvia loves to share."

She looked genuine enough… "Alright, then." 

And finally, the dungeon settled down enough for him to start reading. 

Everything in the book seemed normal – if not depressing – at first, until Gray finished the prologue and noticed a few odd additions to the last few paragraphs. 

He was willing to shrug it off, thinking it was a creative addition to the story, something to draw one in, or else that it would have some importance later on, until he started reading chapter one and saw the same thing, over and over, making whole pages of the book illegible.

Could it just be this story…?

Determined to test out his theory, the ice mage went to another bookmark, and therefore another story, flipping back and forth a few times. The same thing was there. 

Now stumped, Gray was left racking his brains a bit trying to understand if there could have been an issue with the print, before he remembered magic had created this novel. 

"Hey, is that normal?" Gray turned the book back towards the girl, now busy tracing her fingers along the cracks in the floor, brow furrowed. 

"Hm?" The Rain Woman gave it a quick once over, before looking back at him, "Is what normal?"

He looked from the girl to the book, twice, trying to see if she was joking, then deadpanned, "The redactions."

He may as well have brought up kangaroo mating for all the comprehension she displayed. 

He was not going to let his temper get the best of him today. He didn't want to spend another hour contemplating eating fire, so he let out one deep breath and said, "Every place that's supposed to have a character's name or description has redacted written instead in big, bold lettering," He pointed out a sentence, tapping the [REDACTED] a few times so she knew where to look, "Was it like that for you?"

"Er… No." 

She looked oddly cagey, but as Gray had already finished his breakfast-with-a-show, he felt pushing her anymore would constitute bullying, so he let the moment go.

"I guess I could just imagine names for them…" Though that could get confusing fast once more characters started showing up. The ice mage stared at the tomb for a solid minute trying to puzzle out how he was going to read this. 

"Maybe ," the Rain Woman gasped suddenly, like she was really on to something, "the book has become sentient." 

Yeah. And maybe , you never were.

But Gray was still pretty determined to keep his good mood going, so he asked, "Could you elaborate?"

"The book has been down here with us for nearly three days, it's overheard our conversations. Maybe this is it's way of siding with Juvia, communicating that it too believes it's unfair Captive-san will not reveal his nam–"

"No way in hell." 

"It is a possibilit–" 

"Why would a book care?" He asked stubbornly, not really interested in the answer as he recalled her recommendation earlier, before he'd even opened the book. This probably had more to do with his refusal to be it's personal blood bank…

"It senses injustice."

"Injustice?" The ice mage yelped, righting himself into a sitting position within seconds just to make sure he'd heard her right; based on the stubborn set of her pout, he could assume he had. "I'm in a dungeon! I've been here five days! " 

"So has Juvia." 

"Of your own free will!"

"You don't know that." She argued. 

She actually argued. 

He would not allow her to get the best of him, not again. "You want a name?" He challenged. 

"Oh, yes." She answered immediately, "More than anything!"

The conversation had inevitably turned to names, fine . Gray liked being spiteful above all else, so with much self-satisfaction he redirected it again, this time towards a certain sloppy-grinned pyro. 

"Pinky?" She cried. "You mean to tell Juvia your name is…"

She was staring at him in open-mouthed disgust; you'd think he said his name was Hoarse Shyt. 

"Oh, Captive-san ," She placed a hand over her heart, pity clear in her tone and gaze as she looked him over. "This cannot be. You cannot allow it to go on like this, not for the rest of your life! There are agencies," The Rain Woman informed him seriously, "you could get a new name, a fresh identity. One that would not embarrass the future mother of your children, nor your offspring and descendants ten generations from now."

"I can't," he sniffed, partially upset she was so comfortable openly insulting him, but mostly surprised she appeared to be seventeen steps ahead of him in terms of where his life's path was heading. "It has sentimental value, you see I share it with my friend. He's an or–" 

"Here, we could brainstorm a few names right now," she continued, not appearing to hear him and blatantly unwilling to take no for an answer when she pulled a notebook and pen from actual thin air, "Nothing is truly hopeless. Off the top of her head Juvia would suggest names that inspire mystery, intrigue, sophistication , such as: Gray, Liam, Hunter, Silver, Fredrick, Grieg, Blaine, Steve–"

"Steve," Gray cut in, trying to shake off how this girl managed to hit the nail on the head completely at random, on her first try , "There's nothing sophisticated about a Steve."

"What?" She looked mildly hurt at the insinuation that a Steve could never turn heads, "That was the name of Juvia's old postman. He always brought sweets when he stopped around at the orphanage. That's pretty intriguing."

Not even while in the throws of a major hallucinogenic was bringing candy to unparented children interesting. 

"Good morning, Steve-sama!" She cheered, all smiles as she gave him a little wave, "See? It has a nice ring to it. And just imagine, that could be your future if you just abandon Pinky."

Who was she calling –sama ?

"Speaking of, I actually had a really tragic backstory lined up before you steamrolled me with fascinating tales of Steve. "

The Rain Woman was gracious enough to lend him the floor while Gray crafted a story so ridiculous he honestly felt he deserved an award for being that original. 

"–and so you see, he died over four hundred years ago but his sibling–" Gray couldn't remember if he'd given Natsu a brother or a sister at this point, "–his sibling loved him so much, he used some pretty dark, I mean damn near unspeakable , magic to bring him back and in doing so Pinky had no choice but to be raised by dragons until he fell into another coma, and by that time he was starting to show signs of aging so he joined a magical guild, where he could use the magic he'd learned to go on great adventures and eat plenty of fire."

"But Juvia thought his brother–" 

Ah, it was a brother! 

"–wiped his memory, how do you know Pinky is his actual–?"

"Well, we don't know his real name." The ice mage went on, thinking fast, "He doesn't know either, so he just kinda gave that over to us. As his only family now, we make it a priority to ensure he feels loved, by coming together every few weeks and crafting another name for him, hearts overflowing with genuine affection. But formally, y'know on documents and stuff," Gray clarified, "he's known as Pinky." 

"He must be an astonishingly forward-thinking man to have accepted such an effeminate moniker so willingly."

"If there's one thing Pinky's known for, it would have to be thinking ahead. " Gray agreed somberly. "But again, that's just one of many nicknames he loves. There's also Princess Lollipop, Summer's Eve, Butter Lips ," He rattled off on his fingers, "The kids have taken to calling him Bubblegum Bitch , but y'know, they're mean… "

"Oh." 

"Yeah… He was actually knighted, y'know?" 

"No!"

"Yeah!" Grinned Gray, really starting to enjoy himself, "Three years back, so he'd be Dame Pinky, to you."

"Ah, ok. Yes." She nodded, tone so serious, he wouldn't be surprised if she'd been taking notes.

"Personally, I think he prefers The Strawberry Duchess, he always sorta lights up at that name," Gray went on, with a false look of tenderness, "but it's so new, he hasn't gotten it on any documents yet. Y'know, a good notary public is so hard to come by these days."

xGx

Several hours had passed since the rather pleasant, if not completely insane, conversation with the Rain Woman had wrapped up.

He didn't know how, but the girl had given the book a bit of a pep talk on the side, and now he could read A Vengeful Heart. 

It wasn't quite the same, he had to assign each new character a name before it became inked on the page and permanently assigned to them, something the Rain Woman swore she'd never had to do, but he didn't mind all that much. He'd given the prince's brother, a man that reminded him so fiercely of Lyon he'd almost thrown the whole book away, the name Grand Duke Beetle Buns and he hadn't been given a reason to regret his actions yet. 

For the prince, Gray had dubbed him Silver, taking direct inspiration from his conversation with the Rain Woman; the name had sort of stuck with the ice mage, rattling around pleasantly until he'd finally found some use for it. As for the girl, he'd just sorta pulled random letters from mid-air until something acceptable materialized, the result of all that hard work being Jinaya, the talented but severely overworked young woman from a village with less notoriety than a mud puddle.

True to her word, the story wasn't dirty, it was mostly about a girl who wanted to bring down a kingdom in the name of her fallen fiancé, she was clever, cold, and full of rage, but not horny.

The only person who didn't seem aware of the book's genre was the prince himself.

This girl would go on for paragraphs detailing exactly how she wanted to kill him, down to the escape route and which method of homicide would haunt her least in the long-run, and every single time the clueless prince would sidle up closer to the would-be murderess, inviting her on private outings, places so remote a bat wouldn't be able to sense his screams, places so removed from other human beings, living witnesses that could protect him, that they weren't even recorded on a map. 

He openly antagonized this girl, to the point Gray kept going back to the story's description just to make sure he really wasn't suicidal. And he did all this in the name of flirting. 

The man was a prince , he could get almost anyone on his planet – Gray wouldn't be surprised if he could even lure a partner out of the country he was at war with – but no , he had to have the girl that carried poison needles on her just in case she ever got the urge to abandon her long term plans for domination, and stick them in his eye. 

It was maddening.

Still, he hadn't put the book down once so far. He could understand how The Rain Woman had gone a whole day without even acknowledging his presence, Gray was honestly enthralled.

The Rain Woman had disappeared a while ago, maybe trusting that he'd be too engaged in the pages of her book to think of escaping – and while that wasn't exactly true, it wasn't entirely false either. She'd taken the tray with her, probably to get everything cleaned up, which left Gray alone for the most part, but as no new avenues for freedom had made themselves known, he could hardly take advantage of it, and put his energy more towards understanding how one fictional person could drive him so crazy. 

He was right in the midst of yelling at the prince, yet again, because he'd had the bright idea to force the girl out of her favorite meal – one of the few things she actually liked about living in the castle as his guard – in favor of eating with him instead, when the ice mage heard it.

–ump! Thump–duddd! 

Gray sat up, book almost forgotten, head turned towards his blind spot. Someone was running, and landing hard . They must have been in a mad rush, because he could hear it through the ceiling. 

Boo–boood–thunnd–thump! Bbbbbb–! BAN–BBOOM!

It was getting louder and closer, heading right for him, he was certain. In all the time he'd been here no one had ever been in a rush before.

Could it finally be…?

The door to the dungeons swung open, with a high squeak of it's hinges, slamming into the wall, while the footsteps got closer, clearly skipping stairs as they raced towards him.

Mere seconds after the running started up, it stopped, taking the ice mage's rising spirits with it, "Ah, it's you again. Look, I was wondering–"

The Rain Woman shook her head quickly, frantically, before motioning him towards her, through the bars.

She didn't say anything, which Gray found odd to begin with, but the look in her eyes – it was almost panicky.

He racked his brains for a cause – momentarily forgetting the concerns he'd wanted to discuss with her – something that could have unsettled her, but came up short. "Did something happ–?"

"Please!" She hissed.

Against his better judgment, Gray shuffled off the cot towards her, cautious yet foolishly curious. The Rain Woman didn't share his hesitancy; the moment he was within arm's reach, she reached through the bars to grab up his hand, and shoved something cold in it, before backing away quickly.

He glanced down to see what could be the cause of all this urgency. 

Ice cream. 

It was an ice cream sandwich, wrapped in simple white paper, just like you'd get as a kid.

Gray looked up again to give her a raised brow.

"Eat it," she insisted, gaze locked somewhere down the hall, in his blind spot, "quickly."

Well, of course he wasn't going to!

Her behavior was so odd, almost like she'd passed him a bomb or something; a simple mid-morning treat should not have inspired the kind of shakes this woman was displaying, and she was shaking. 

He'd have to be worse than a fool to just eat something given to him by an enemy.

…Not counting all the meals he'd eaten yesterday, or a few hours ago, of course. 

It was drugged, he was sure of it. Perhaps she'd wised up a bit since the hosing down incident and realized you could attract more flies with honey, rather than violently impending death by drowning. 

Either way he wasn't eating it, instead he'd be polite to his potentially unbalanced captor and flush it down the toil–

The sudden creak of the door by the stairs sounded, followed by unhurried footfalls, and Juvia whipped her head towards him, eyes wide.

Then, without thinking, he unwrapped the ice cream, fingers clumsy in the mad rush to get it open, before he shoved the whole thing down his throat in one go, not even chewing it.

It took him a moment to realize what he'd done, with regret slamming into his chest like a stone, once he did. The ice mage was utterly floored by his own actions, while he stared blankly at the bits of paper still left over, in his hands.

How had he so blindly trusted the girl after he just said–!

He wished it had gotten lodged in his throat so he'd at least have the chance to try and cough it up again, but it went down easily enough, much to his chagrin.

What if it had some kind of animal experimentation potion in it that would turn him into–

No , he couldn't even think of it… 

Gray was so lost in thought, tormented by his own actions, that the cause of them had momentarily fled his mind. 

He felt eyes on him, that's what made him look up, but he'd been expecting the girl, curious about what the results of whatever drug or potion she'd slipped him, would do.

So when he came face to face with Jose Porla, Certified Wizard Saint and Guildmaster of Phantom Lord, he was more than a little shocked.

"Good morning," He purred, deep green eyes that were almost black locked on Gray like a wolf that had come across a sheep already cooked to perfection. " So pleased we're finally able to have this little chat." 

xGx

Jose Porla had always seemed a bit odd to Gray, just as a public figure went. 

There was something – off-putting about the man that had always given Gray the feeling he shouldn't be within an inch of power.

Jose's voice was oddly weaselly, soft in an oily way, that made people with common sense mistrust him.

Unfortunately, a lot of people on Earthland didn't have much common sense. 

His lips were always done up in a purple lipstick that looked black in most lighting, and his rust-colored, stick-straight hair normally sat limply at his shoulders, though today, he had it pulled up, hidden under his signature tri-tipped hat. 

His clothing was rather mundane; plain black jacket, pants, and cape. The only thing that hinted at his penchant for the bizarre were his shoes, the toes curled in on themselves whimsically. 

Gray focused on all of these things to try to ignore the fact the man who'd gone head-to-head with Makarov Dreyer five days ago, and managed to walk away from it, stared him down.

The old man did a quick look over his shoulder, "Is he ready?"

"Yes, Jose-sama."

Gray jumped. The Rain Woman had been so quiet he'd forgotten she was still there, somehow convinced deep down that she'd left the scene a while ago.

But she was still in the same place, face now hidden in the shadows, standing stock still while her guild master began pacing between them.

Gray then refocused his gaze on Jose, noticing the erratic way he prowled in the corridor, unsettling the ice mage on a deeper level. 

"I have three questions for you," Jose declared, slick voice echoing around the little space, while he walked, "and I want you to answer them honestly and thoroughly, leaving no room for misinterpretation, because if you don't, I will know. And there will be consequences. Understand?"

Gray nodded once, surprised at his own lack of humor while confronted with the guild master. 

Though the ice mage could already feel his respect dwindling a bit with every jiggle of Jose's floppy, pointed hat…

Suddenly he spun around, stopping dramatically in front of the cell with an accusatory point of his finger, directly at Gray's nose, "Tell me boy, would Makarov invoke the Rune Knights in our little spat to try and end this war in his favor?"

Even more than the twirling, that question took him by surprise. 

"No," Gray laughed, tension leaving him as quickly as it had come. That was easy enough to answer. "First off, The Council's no fan of ours. If they could rewrite their laws specifically to get Fairy Tail unilaterally disbanded, that shit would have been jotted down on a post-it in permanent marker, and made into law, decades ago." He chuckled.

Jose stepped back as if his humor was unsightly.

"Still," The guild master amended, tone rather insistent, "there's no telling what sort of games your old master would resort to. You may view him as a saint, but I can tell you from experience, Makarov is nowhere near as clean as his beard." Jose nodded sagely. 

Gray worked hard to fight his snickers on that one, but he couldn't quite manage it. He had seen the old man get wasted and then super size himself since he was seven . He'd run around Magnolia, taller than Kardia Cathedral, picking up horses and people and carriages alike, to play a rather demented version of house, until he either passed out or else was rounded up by the authorities.

No one alive thought Makarov Dreyer had a reputation as pure as snow. 

Luckily, Phantom's master was too busy monologuing to notice the ice mage's struggles. "For all you know he has an insider on The Council these days, more than happy to knock out his competit–!"

" If the geezer managed to pull that off," And that was a heavy if, "why would he waste time dialing up those overdressed mall cops to go after you, when he could be doing something productive with those marionette strings?" Like eliminating all their debt… 

"So he could revel in the glory of being Fiore's number one guild!" Jose cried, paving another path in front of Gray's cell while the ice mage watched him, mystified. "He has no concern for legitimacy or hierarchy, so long as he could lord himself over the rest of us, as he's been want to do since his precious Master Precht ordained him the position all those years ago. He will snatch the title away from those more worthy in a hot minute!"

The old man was losing him.

This was further proven when he muttered in a voice Gray wasn't entirely sure he was meant to hear, " I bet this has to do with his father. Try as he might, Makarov could never live up to his legacy, and now he's here, taking it out on the rest of us…!"

Gray shook his head; not only was the old man not getting it, he was beginning to suspect serious paranoia in the geezer. "Look, Fairy Tail's a lot of things, but a narc ain't one of them." Especially not over some made-up title.

The only way to know if a guild was better than the rest was to have them face each other, head on. Kinda like the one they'd been having before Phantom decided to turn tail and run.

No council decision or magazine countdown could make up for a good old-fashioned face off, Gray stood by that. 

"Very well." Jose sniffed haughtily, clearly displeased, "We'll move on to question two."

The mage nodded mildly, but only a part of Gray was listening then, because the majority of his mind was occupied with how refreshed he suddenly felt. 

Could it have to do with the ice cream…?

He had no idea he needed something cold that badly; it was like his whole body had cooled down and rehydrated from his throat, down, and then out. 

Even his injury stopped prickling. 

He let out a breath of surprise, and saw with wide eyes that the gust that came out was condensed, a cool cloud in the stuffy dungeon air. 

He glanced over to the Rain Woman, but her face was hidden in the shadows. 

Try as he might, he couldn't make heads or tails of the girl; just as quickly as he'd reassured himself that she was trying to off him, she'd shown up with a solution to heal him twice as fast.

And her emotions weren't anything to go by either, they changed by the minute and left no hint of what her next move would be. 

Still… 

He felt his chest, the easy way he was breathing for the first time in days, and reconsidered yet again. 

Could he convince her to bring him more, once Jose was gone? Or perhaps she'd only given it to him for Jose's sake, something to keep him just lucid enough for the questioning, only to leave him in the overheated cell once this was all over. 

But that wouldn't explain her reaction when she'd given it to him, nervous, like she was clearly doing something her guild master wouldn't approve of. 

Ugh, he couldn't make sense of it! 

And he wouldn't know any more until he got her alone again, to ask. 

The ice mage refocused on Jose then, leaning back on his pile of blankets, more than ready for the goofy old man to wrap this up, "Shoot." 

Yet again, Jose started pacing.

It was a wonder any of the monsters skulking around Phantom Lord respected this clown as their leader.

He was almost literally dressed like a jester, how did no one else see it?

Maybe it was like that old saying, come to life, ' You can dress however the fuck you want, when no one else can beat your ass.'

As the ice mage watched Jose's slippers jingle comically with every step he took, Gray knew Shade had to be one hell of a spell. 

He stopped in front of Gray again, taking a dramatic sniff before he asked, "Did Makarov order one of his unscrupulous little children to run around Fiore and destroy our branches?"

The ice mage blinked.

The geezer before him didn't appreciate his hesitancy. "Don't play dumb!" He spat, beady green eyes going wild, "Did he or did he not direct his brutish pygmy-subordinates to go after dozens of Phantom's subsidiaries in the dead of night, ripping down our flags and collecting them on his behalf as trophies?!" 

"I… wouldn't know," the ice mage answered honestly.

He watched Jose's eye twitch with irritation, clearly bothered by his lack of cooperation, but there was nothing he could do to rectify it.

For once he was being serious, he'd been genuinely taken back by the news; not only had he not heard anything about Fairy Tail going after Phantom's other branches, Gray wasn't even aware they had other branches. 

It was not entirely uncommon. It wasn't all that impressive either. Guilds that went and branched off always seemed to do it solely for the money.

They'd lure in second- or third-rate talent, using their main guild's prestige as bait and then siphon off as much of their new underlings' reward money as possible. 

It was something Ur had warned him and Lyon about, when they'd gotten into a random conversation about what their futures could be like as full-fledged wizards.

She herself had learned the hard way, needing to beat the shit out of a crooked guild master who'd tried to lock her into a 30 year contract when she was fresh on the scene. 

By the time she was done, that guy had been begging her to leave, damn near packed her bags for her, then dropped her off personally at the nearby train station.

Branching off was generally regarded as a pretty cheap thing to do. And Jose had let on Phantom had dozens , something unheard of in Gray's mind. 

In order to even get a single offshoot, one needed an official license from the Magic Council. 

Other than the fact Fairy Tail would never want one, the main reason they didn't have branches was because Fairy Tail didn't qualify for any of those licenses. 

They owed so much money to various towns, villages, cities, the Council itself…

Then there were the citations for various misdemeanors.

And of course, there were certain activities any official institution was barred from participating in, if three or more of their members had spent any time in a Fiorian-run prison within the last three years, and after Natsu's little stunt to save Erza from her trial, that made twelve , excluding Erza, so…

Yeah. 

There was just no chance of them having a subsidiary. 

It was cool, though; franchising was for burger joints and cafes, guilds were meant to be a family. 

If anything, Gray was a bit impressed that Phantom's record had remained clean so long that they could even get the paperwork needed for the dozens of locations they'd just lost.

Fairy Tail may not even have a liquor license come fall… 

"Probably wasn't us," Gray shrugged, giving his full attention to Jose once more. "More than likely some guy saw your ugly little guild-marked flags all up and down the country, and decided to do some environmental cleanup for the good of our nation. Goddamn hero, but alas, not one of us. The timing was probably just a coincidence."

The old man with his silly little shoes seethed openly at Gray's conclusion, but he didn't argue. He couldn't. There was no evidence Fairy Tail even cared enough to do such a thing.

"Anything else?"

Jose started his pacing up again, his pencil thin mustache, so unusually unkempt at the moment, ruffling with every huff he let out. 

Maybe all this walking around was a bit too much for the geezer's body to take… 

He could just as easily interrogate and intimidate Gray from a chair, it really was no bother either way for the ice mage, aesthetically speaking. 

"Question three… question three…"

Suddenly the guild master stopped, staring blankly at a spot on the floor, brows furrowed deeply.

Gray blinked, certain he was misinterpreting Jose's silence until his curiosity got the best of him and he asked, "...Did you forget it?"

Jose whirled on him immediately. 

"How dare you?" He thundered, in a deeply offended, needlessly dramatic wheeze that left Gray convinced the old man forgot. "Perhaps respect is not a tenet of Makarov's tutelage, but you will learn to adopt it while in my presence!"

Gray watched him, blinking lazily, "If you wanna come back when it hits you again, maybe get some food, take a nap, recharge, I'll wait for you– I mean there's not much else going on down here."

"I reject your insinuations boy, and further, I do not need –!" Jose stopped, sniffing the air like a bloodhound on the hunt, "What's that smell?"

"Probably me." The ice mage replied casually, not so willing to let their previous conversation go, "I think this place is above a boiler, it keeps going from extremely cold to hot every half hour, and well, once it's warm…"

…scents carried. 

Besides the hose down he'd gotten that first morning, Gray hadn't touched much water since he'd been here. 

While the cell did have the hidden toilet and sink, there was only so much splashing he could do with a stream that weak, to supplement a real shower. 

He was in need of a bath, a real one, a hot one, and fresh clothes if it could be afforded to him. 

Hell, he'd strut around his little cage butt-naked if they had a washing machine hidden around here somewhere. Keeping his captor's minds pure wasn't high on his list of priorities, and he'd shown plenty more around his own guild, while far less pissed off. 

Maybe it was too much to expect them to have full showering facilities. Okay.

He was aware that some of the perks he'd casually taken advantage of at his own guild weren't the standard, but they needed to work something out and soon. 

Even if it meant waiting for a rainy day and sticking him out a window while their guild hall ran around in a circle, Gray needed to get clean. 

This was what he'd been trying to discuss with the Rain Woman before Jose had begun this whole silly line of questioning. "Soap wasn't exactly part of the introduction package when I got here." He added. 

For the first time, Jose looked uncomfortable, downright scandalized. "And to think you are comfortable with such a odor…"

Gray's eyes narrowed quickly, well and truly done with the man before him, "I'm not comfortable with a lot of things I've had to endure here. You think my apartment is a two-by-four with bars on the door that can only be unlocked from the outside?"

"It smells like pure horse dung down here," Jose went on, openly ignoring him, while he spouted unfounded lies , "To think you've been raised in such an environment that would encourage such things. Well , you really don't know how the other half lives until you witness it."

"What the hell ar–?"

"Are all of Makarov's children so openly unhygienic?" The guild master muttered, distraught, before whirling on Gray with an unsightly turn of his cape, "Do you pee in buckets before an audience too, boy?"

At this point, the maker mage had no idea what he was talking about. "Is that your third question?" Gray asked, genuinely stumped. 

While he wanted a shower, he wasn't willing to do just anything for it. 

More footsteps sounded from the staircase, before the guild master, who was looking skeevier with every passing second, had a chance to respond. 

"Juvia." Jose barked as the stranger approached.

Damn, what a coincidence that two members of the same guild had the exact same, rather unique, name.

That had to be confusing… 

For the first time since he'd arrived, the Rain Woman lifted eyes to look at Jose. Gray's thoughts derailed then, when he noticed how careful her expression was, cold, like she didn't want any of her thoughts exposed. He also noticed how deliberate and steady her gaze was, refusing to even momentarily glance in his direction. 

She stepped forward once, "Yes, Jose-sama?"

"Sue will stay here with this one," Jose flicked his wrist carelessly in the ice mage's direction, motioning the other woman – who was clearly named Sue , not Juvia – forward. "We have much to discuss, we've put it off far too long."

She dipped her chin once in agreement, "Yes, Jose-sama."

"Keep your eyes on that one," Jose warned the other woman, beginning his stride down the hall with the Rain Woman at his heels, "He may not look like much, but I doubt Makarov's little collection holds many inoperative pieces."

To tell the truth, it was actually full of them…

But Gray kept that little tidbit to himself. 

"Sure, sure." Sue replied breezily, like she was completely unaffected by the dungeon's tense atmosphere. 

The ice mage and his new guard remained where they were as the other two trekked down the passage, up the stairs, and out of earshot.

When they were gone, Gray fell back on his cot, mind racing and stomach uneasy. 

For some reason he couldn't quite place, the face the Rain Woman had made when she left was haunting him. 

He'd seen it before, he was sure of it. 

The feeling only doubled when he replayed how she'd answered her guild master, robotic, unnatural, and while it could be said she had a rather unique way of speaking, this was something different. 

It was like she'd completely stripped herself of any sensation, become a soulless shell. Emotionless. Pliable. Ready to please and obey. The change had been so fast, like slipping out of a jacket, it was unnerving. 

When they'd met… 

The first time… 

The real first time, outside, while it was raining… 

A sharp twinge began pounding above his brow then, forcing his eyes shut while he groaned out loud. Gray dragged his nails over his scalp to ride out the wave, hoping to dilute some of the pain, but it only seemed to be building as the seconds turned into a full minute, before bypassing even that. 

By the time it was all over, he had to stifle his gasp of relief, and whatever memory had been resurfacing, was gone. 

Gray slumped back again, this time in frustration; partially because he didn't know what he was missing or why it mattered so much, but also because of what greeted him when he'd reopened his eyes. 

Sue was there, watching him from the other side of the bars as though he were a part of a new, particularly rare zoo exhibit. Her head tilted this way and that, while the ears of her silly purple hat bounced with the motion. 

Just as quickly as she was there, she stepped back, eyes dimming a bit, like she'd already grown bored, before she pulled out a small knife, unsheathing it with her eyes locked on him.

She fell back carelessly, landing in Juvia's seat, using the tip of the blade to pick at her teeth.

Gray eyed her, weary anew. 

"So," she whispered, forearms leaning on her knees as she bent forward in Juvia's chair, down to his level, "What now?" 

xJx

Upstairs, morale had hit an all time low.

It was clear many of the guild were tired of running, tired of being cooped up, tired of each other.

The basic upkeep they'd managed the first few days had already begun to wane, with many common areas the pair passed showing obvious signs of being lived-in wherever Juvia looked.

Crumpled blankets, piles of stolen pillows, taken from unsuspecting members and collected like rare currency, dotted the main lobby. As they climbed up the stairs, leading up to Phantom's main offices and private meeting rooms, Juvia saw from above the little circles of people restlessly talking amongst themselves or else, trying to get something done, like getting the lacrima system back up and working. 

It was one of things the guild hall hadn't managed to heal itself, leaving most of their members disgruntled that they'd been so disconnected from the rest of the world for so long. 

Another thing they'd lost was the washing machines and dryers, when to everyone's surprise, Aria had awakened from his coma quite suddenly, and gone into a violent rampage, the likes of which no one had ever seen before from the mostly gentle giant. 

This meant no more clean clothes for the people who hadn't known to leave an extra bag of spares hidden somewhere in the guild prior to their fleeing. 

Which was basically everyone, leaving them no choice but to dress in Phantom's leftover souvenir merch from last year. 

That had ruffled quite a few feathers.

Juvia actually did have extra clothes, not because she'd known what was going to happen, but because she's been scheduled for a mission with the book early in the morning on the day her Master had decided to confront Fairy Tail. 

And while she could sort of wash clothes using her water magic, she'd be in the same boat soon enough, as Sue had mistaken their industrial supply of laundry detergent as bubble soap meant for blowing, and used up about 90% of what they'd had.

Juvia suppressed a sigh; it felt like the hits just kept on coming… 

They passed the library, nearly there, and Juvia peeked in to get a look. Her favorite day-to-day hide-out had been turned on it's head, nearly unrecognizable from the quiet space she'd used as refuge from the members of her guild that were more vocal about their hatred of the rain.

Most books lay scattered on the floor, or else haphazardly piled on tables and chairs, leaving the bookcases bald and spotty all over. There were three sets of pillow forts within, and based on the glares each party was sending the other, there appeared to be a real territory dispute in progress.

One thing she noticed while walking around, was the lack of dirty dishes, though this didn't surprise her. According to Gajeel, Master Jose had taken one look at a plate left unattended on his way to the bathroom, and declared that anyone seen leaving invitation parlors for roaches and general vermin, would be tossed out of the nearest window, and trampled repeatedly by the guild hall.

Dishwashing, at least, was here to stay. 

It was easier to focus on all of this than what Juvia was willingly walking herself into.

She'd hoped that perhaps something would have changed, or else – almost treasonously – that Fairy Tail would have eventually caught up to them, preventing this confrontation from ever needing to happen.

She was going to be punished, that was for certain, she'd known from the moment Sue had informed her Master Jose wanted to see her alone.

Her feeling had only redoubled when he'd told her he wanted her to prepare Captive-san for interrogation, tone short and clipped.

And then they'd have their talk.

Juvia turned her fingers over and over before forcing them at her sides, trying to contain any hint of nerves, push down the frightened squeak trapped in her throat, and ignore the way her knees began to feel less tangible with every step.

She'd done so many terrible things, knowing punishment would be severe but not swift. Even this morning, when she'd sworn to herself not to overstep her reach, she'd gone back on her word almost immediately, when she'd come across a box of ice cream sandwiches – almost a hundred of them – leftover from some long forgotten party.

It clicked for her then, that Captive-san was an ice wizard on the mend, perhaps he needed something cold. The dungeons were purposely kept too warm most of the time specifically for his discomfort, something she'd learned two days ago while passing by a trio of her guildmates, grumbling over who would make the trek all the way downstairs to turn up the boilers, again.

She knew that had to be contributing to his slow healing and she'd been worried over it ever since, trying to give him cooling balms and different ointments that would lessen his suffering, only for him to deny her, slapping her away while she watched him wither before her very eyes. 

It was almost remarkable how stubborn that man was! 

But it wouldn't keep her from trying. 

Whenever Gajeel came back more tussled up than he'd expected, the first thing he did was consume whatever metals happened to be laying around, before sleeping the day away. The next morning, it would be like nothing happened. 

Sure, he was a dragon slayer, while Captive-san was not, but that didn't diminish the concept , the ice cream couldn't hurt.

She had no idea if her theories were right or not, he'd waited until the very last second to eat it (stubborn to the end) and now she was up here. Nothing would be confirmed until she returned to her post.

If she returned.

Master Jose stopped before the wide double doors of his office, standing aside to allow her to enter first.

Juvia stepped over the threshold, every bone in her body weak with fear. 

xJx

She stood before his desk, not daring to sit across from him without being invited first, while Master Jose shuffled and restacked piles of paper, all of them either crumpled or dog-eared or yellowed with overuse. 

The silence was unbearable. Juvia had anticipated punishment, to feel the full brunt of his anger at her interferences, but the quiet rage that seemed to stew and simmer within her master made her realize whatever she'd been prepared for wasn't within a hair's breadth of reality.

Jose inhaled deeply then, the sound echoing while Juvia felt her spine snap even straighter, completely at attention.

He set the last piece of paper down, everything neat and tidy on his desk before his eyes flickered up to her.

"Juvia never meant to interfere!" She gasped immediately, stumbling over her words from the speed at which she rushed to apologize, "It was disrespectful, Jose-sama obviously knew better and Juvia cannot apologize more! She has cost the guild more than she can calculate, not only monetarily but also in good name–" The bluenette's throat ached terribly as the first tell-tale sign of oncoming tears, and no sooner had she realized that, than they started coming down, her chin wet and wobbling, her voice failing her.

Her cheeks and throat burned, not only from her guilt but also humiliation, she hadn't managed to get out even a fraction of her regrets before her emotions had overwhelmed her. She wasn't looking for pity or mercy from her master, but she couldn't control herself enough to stop, to explain just how terrible she felt for her role, to Master Jose. 

She couldn't see his expression through her sobs, but she knew he wouldn't be moved by such a display.

If anything it might upset him more. 

"Clean yourself." He tutted, tossing over a black handkerchief from the pocket it peeked out of, almost indistinguishable from the rest of his robes.

It landed briefly on her chest, and Juvia grabbed it up, dabbing at her eyes, heaving even while she tried her best to contain herself. 

She knew how much her master hated overt displays of emotion, even if it was in deference to him, but the guilt had been eating her away. 

It took some time for her to calm enough to regain her composure, but even when she did she knew it was only temporary. She'd slapped a bandage over an active volcano; there was still plenty of emotion swirling within her, itching to escape, it was only a matter of keeping it locked up until she left her master's office.

Unfortunately, controlling her emotions had always been Juvia's weakest link.

"Over the last five days," he began, sniffing while he turned his head, more than likely so he wouldn't have to witness her meltdown anymore, "I have debated retiring you from the guild."

Her breathing turned heavy, louder, as she reached blindly in front of herself to use the chair to hold herself up. 

"It would come to me every so often, just how much you overstepped, just how little faith you had in me, your master, that you felt you knew better, could do better–"

"No, Juvia has never dreamed of accomplishing anything clo–!" 

A sharp look cut her off so effectively, it felt like she's been slapped. 

"There were plenty of benefits to ridding Phantom Lord of your presence, as I'm sure you're aware. Your unsightly emotional outbursts at the drop of a hat or the whims of some boy. The near constant overcast days when you can't be bothered to leave town, with no consideration of those around you, who also have desires. Who actually enjoy the sun on their skin. I, for one, have given up my dream of owning a flourishing hydrangea garden, entirely.

"The weakness," he hissed, rage so plain Juvia stepped back, throat in a knot, "that you flaunt like a neon sign. Perhaps you feel some misguided sense of entitlement, that the rules don't apply to you given your status, that you can't be tossed out like all the others? I cannot begin to imagine the silly thoughts that run through your head. Time after time, I choose not to punish you, believing you will catch on on your own, and time and time again I'm disappointed. Yesterday, I made preparations for your exit–"

He paused then, and Juvia couldn't understand why until her ears picked up the sound of metal scraping glass. It took her far too long to realize the sound was coming from her and that she needed to stop before he would continue. 

"In the end however, I decided against it. If I'm being perfectly honest, I don't have time to be angry with you, Juvia," Jose purred, standing from his desk and stalking over to the bar behind him, "You understand what a fool you were. You know better than to do it again. And now you know your place, that is enough." His eyes flickered to her again, " For now."

Juvia swallowed.

"I called you here because after five days I've finally made some much needed, albeit difficult, decisions." Her master hummed, back still to her while Juvia twisted his bit of cloth between her fingers. 

"I do not require advice, so much as information. I was hoping the boy would fill in the blanks, but he's proven to be a loyal stooge of Makarov's through and through." Master Jose then shrugged, returning to his desk with a small dish of nuts in tow before he gently traced his fingertips on the desk's surface. 

Suddenly the room went dark and a bright white projection glowed on the wall just behind him. He shuffled some papers out of the careful stacks he'd created earlier, placing them strategically so they were visible on the screen.

Juvia looked them over with wide eyes, not entirely sure what she was seeing. There were maps and spreadsheets, which could have made sense, but he also had pages ripped from tabloid wizard magazines, as well as collectable info cards that looked like they'd been pulled from a novelty cereal box as a prize. 

He pushed one wizard up, a man with bright white hair, cold gray eyes, and mildly sardonic expression. The water maiden was surprised to discover they were the same age, he looked mature for 19, if not unreasonably smug.

"...Convincing him may be difficult, but necessary. Baba's getting up in age, with us, it would be a partnership. We could propel each other… If I could just…"

He was muttering to himself, the harsh lights of his desk projector casting strange shadows over his face. Juvia wasn't sure if she was meant to stay here, he'd said he wanted to speak with her, but his behavior suggested he'd forgotten she was there.

Master Jose began shuffling his pages again, coming to some decision he hadn't voiced aloud. He swiveled his chair to gaze up at the images, biting down on a handful of almonds.

"Juvia!" 

"Yes, Jose-sama?" She yelped, newly startled. 

"Bring me the globe, the clear one, behind you. I need to adjust the guild's coord–"

Briiiing! Brrriiiiing! Briiiing! 

Master Jose glanced down at his desk, before a deep, rolling sigh seemed to travel through his body, eyes slowly falling shut. 

He seemed to just keep exhaling; his chest started to look hollow from the water maiden's point of view, yet he didn't stop.

Briiiing! Brrriiiiing! Briiiing! 

Perhaps it was his expression, but Juvia felt a stone of unease sink through her stomach while the desk vibrated over and over. It was the only sound in the room, loud and unwelcome. 

He stared at it, but didn't move, almost as if by not acknowledging it he could make it go away. 

Finally, Master Jose let out a small huff from his nose, like he'd just finished preparing himself for a necessary, unavoidable moment of pain. His fingertips skirted the top of his desk, raising the lights in the office, not quite as bright as when they'd walked in, but enough for his face to become visible to her.

That clarity only intensified her feeling of dread.

He opened a drawer in his desk swiftly, pulling out a lacrima and settling it within the hollow space cut into the tabletop.

Juvia almost mentioned that the guildhall hadn't managed to recover their communication lines yet, meaning his call wouldn't go through without being manually powered by her master's magic, but she held her tongue at the last second, remembering what overstepping had put Phantom through already.

Her hesitation turned out to be the correct response. The water maiden wasn't sure how, but the lacrima glowed immediately, hovering in place while CALL WAITING danced and flashed across the little orb.

Briiiing! Brrriiiiing! Briiiing! 

With nothing else to hold him back, her master shuttered his eyes just one more time, before plastering on a bright – and incredibly frightening – smile, slapping his hand down on the bright red ANSWER button as he did so. 

"Good morning!" He crowed, more teeth visible than Juvia felt socially acceptable when his smile stretched even wider, "what an unexpected surprise. I wasn't aware we had a meeting scheduled today, otherwise I would have cleared– Why, I would have cleared my entire day for you! Are you certain you made an appointment, bec–?"

"Have you lost your fucking mind ?"

Juvia's mouth dropped, her gaze darting immediately to her master.

But if she was shocked by the stranger's rude response, it didn't hold a candle to her surprise when Master Jose chuckled quickly, as though the pair were simply sharing a delightful little joke.

The man in the lacrima didn't reciprocate. 

"Made an appointment? What do you take me for?" He demanded, clearly insulted, voice like a stiff whip, harsh and swift. His deep, elegant timber vibrated beyond what Juvia would have thought the lacrima capable of projecting, paperwork spilling over the desktop while he spoke. "I am not the sort of man who revolves his time around the help's convenience. What else would you have had me do? Spit-shine your shoes? Play nursemaid to your children? I'm going above and beyond right now by even bothering to have this conversation with you, I should have simply had you served and be done with it–"

"Forgive me," Master Jose chuckled, clearly uncomfortable as he scrambled out of his seat, "there's been much– I'm not sure you're aware of the time difference– Sleep! Had I gotten enough sleep, I wouldn't have made such… Let me, just adjust–"

Her master was babbling, mostly to himself while he moved the lacrima, twisting it so the blonde man's face zipped out of the little orb, onto the wall just like he'd had his paperwork before.

He was blurred, movements slow and oddly disjointed from his speech, but Juvia knew that had more to do with the guild's warbly connections than something actually being wrong with him. Up on the wall, he was large enough for her to finally recognize him. 

Jude Heartfilia, that's who this man was. The founder of Heartfilia Industries and a business tycoon known nationwide. He owned rail lines, real estate, and had investments said to be worth more than triple that of the King of Fiore.

He was dressed conservatively from what Juvia could see, smartly tailored maroon suit visible with a dark silver tie. His blonde hair was cropped and his mustache groomed, almost like it had been done with a ruler. His jaw was set and clenched, as though containing an avalanche of temper, peering at them from above. 

Apparently, Juvia wasn't the only one taking stock of a stranger. His gaze was just as severe as his tone, when he barked, "Who is that with you, Jose? We have sensitive matters to discuss, I'd prefer not to have interlopers involved, nosing around where they shouldn't."

Master Jose glanced back at her, like he'd forgotten she was there, then swept his arms up to encompass her presence, presenting to the man on the screen, "This is Juvia Lockser, premier member of our Element Four and–"

"The Rain Woman," Jude nodded approvingly, and Juvia hoped his side was just as grainy as theirs, if only to hide the shudders that rolled through her from his view, at the moniker, "Yes, we spoke about her before. From what I understand her part was the only one that went through as planned, before you– Well you never explained what happened fully from then on, only that you'd lost my daughter."

"She's quite the fighter," Master Jose chuckled, the sound hollow and lonely while it bounced around the walls of his office. It died rather quickly, when he went on, "No sooner had our call ended then she got awa–"

"And see, that's what I don't understand," Jude thundered, his voice cutting through the air like a hot knife, "My daughter may be a bit free-spirited, but at the end of the day she is one little girl . You talked my ear off to convince me you were the only choice, the best choice! The finest wizard guild in the country! The greatest that money could buy! But now I'm beginning to think I was cheated, that I wasted precious time and money on a degenerate guild, hobbling along on it's last legs and using my money to do it!"

Juvia stumbled back, startled; she'd expected Master Jose's rage, but for this strange man to be yelling at them as he was... It was staggering how openly this man let his displeasure be known; he looked down his nose at them from his side of the lacrima as if he were a disappointed god, not a client.

"Then you tell me, low and behold , you've captured her again. That was five days ago and I have seen neither hide nor hair of her yet! I have appointments to see to, business deals I've scheduled and re-scheduled all on the basis of your word, which is proving to be worth less than the discount donkey hair you've spun your clothes from."

Juvia gasped, glancing at her master again, who simply hung his head, taking every lash the blonde man dished out. 

Jude inhaled deeply, running his thumb across his mustache to smooth out the nonexistent ruffles.

His voice became quieter, but no less ruthless as he went on, "I expected better. Perhaps expected too much from a man of your pedigree, but you managed to claw your way up, to make something of yourself. I thought that showed some sense of drive . Was I mistaken? Have those few accomplishments left you so fat and happy on the hog? What is your endgame here, Jose?"

"Sir, we are working tirelessly to bring you back your child, safe and sound. Phantom Lord has every wizard here, at the guild, working round the clock to ensure her delivery to you, uninterrupted by any other task or mission. There is no other issue higher on our priorities list than her return to you."

Juvia didn't know that. As a matter of fact, she'd completely forgotten about the blonde girl. Though as she was the object of Captive-san's affections, Juvia supposed there was a direct reason her consciousness had swept the little rich girl from her own mind. 

But beyond that, she hadn't even known about the second capture and release of the girl that they'd apparently been a part of. 

Jude lifted his chin, some mollification visible in his expression when he demanded, "How many members of your guild are there?"

"3,200."

Less. Much less now; her Master was counting the branch guilds in that number, all of which had been mysteriously disbanded, according to him. The main guild only kept around 60 members on hand at any time, with many of them being switched out for someone more competent, stronger.

There was always someone stronger.

"3,200 wizards." Jude mused, and the water maiden felt her stomach twist, already anticipating a nasty blow, "And not a single brain cell among you. Tell me Jose, because I'm curious now, how many do you recruit to refresh the cotton between your ears? Is that a dozen man job, or do you keep all hands on deck?"

Juvia's unease only increased when her Master laughed boisterously, the pitch too high, the atmosphere tense and uncomfortable. 

The head of Heartfilia Industries remained stoic while he watched, as if he'd ordered Master Jose to dig his own grave for his petty amusement, but it wasn't near as entertaining as he'd hoped. "Let us review, shall we? You've had my daughter and managed to let her slip away twice now. You're sloppy," He reached behind the lacrima, to show a pile of paperwork and newspapers, with Phantom Lord's name splashed throughout, "There are reports of your guild running around the country, rumors of illegality on your part–"

"All lies!" Jose rushed to say, "Spread by a petty rival determined to undermine us, sow doubt in our most trusted clients," He gestured to the man looming over them on the screen, intentions clear. 

Jude glared, not appeased in the least, "My point is, you've made headline news and I'm not pleased being associated with such buffoonery. The evidence is there for anyone to see, payments on the company records, public records! While I am going into a very delicate transaction, no less. Perhaps you do not understand, but that requires a clean spreadsheet, a respectable family name. As well as good people behind us. So far Jose, you've shown yourself incapable of running a guild worthy of cleaning troughs."

Her master dipped his chin deferentially, sickly smile still spread from ear to ear.

"You make for a pitiful errand boy, Jose," Jude informed him, tone bored, his attention already turned to something they couldn't see, "my faith in your leadership skills only dwindles with every meeting and your groveling may not take you much farther in this life. You have one more chance. If Lucy is not returned to me by the end of the week, consider our deal done and my money revoked."

With that, the screen went black.

Juvia was speechless, not only over the entitlement and impatience of the man but also the disrespect he'd shown her master. His words had been so cruel and demeaning it had reduced one of the most prideful people she knew – even looked up to – into a pitiful cower.

She understood how Master Jose had reacted; just as she had burst into tears, the weight of disappointing another had overwhelmed him and now he was promising things he had no hope of accomplishing. 

Juvia turned to place her hand on his shoulder, a move she normally wouldn't have dared, but given the situation, she felt it could be overlooked, if not welcomed, but what she saw stopped her short.

Like oil sliding off of glass, the meek apologetic expression melted from her master's face, the pitiful grimace sliding into something more… 

Juvia blinked, sure she was misinterpreting something – perhaps he was just putting on a brave face… 

"Jose-sama…"

"We have nothing to worry about." He announced as though picking up their conversation from before. "Mr. Heartfilia will have the girl, we will get our money, the press will rescind those appalling lies, and Fairy Tail will fall." Master Jose rattled off, like he was reviewing a to-do list. He slapped his hands together, going back to his desk to take a seat, "By the end of the week. Very well."

He swiped a hand across his desk, sending the blacked-out communication screen away. In it's place, the maps and spreadsheets he'd been trying to show her before Jude Heartfilia's interruption, appeared. 

He gazed at them like they held the secrets of the universe, one hand stroking his mustache absently.

Juvia stepped forward, "Jose-sama–" 

He jumped. That quickly, once again, had he forgotten she was there? 

"Er, Jose-sama," she began, feeling strangely cautious, as though she'd come across an easily frightened forest animal, "Juvia has been doing some thinking, about the downfall of that other guild…"

"Yes, what is it?" 

"The boy, in the dungeon…' Her voice drifted when she noticed her master's eyes narrow, brow raised, clearly unimpressed.

"What about him? The insolent child," he tacked on irritably.

"Well, Juvia has been speaking with him, and–"

"Has he been more forthcoming with you?" Master Jose demanded suddenly, interest clearly piqued as he gave her his full attention, "Have you been able to extract any secrets from him?"

Well, not exactly.

To be precise, she couldn't even get him to tell her his name… 

(She refused to believe the people around him day-to-day would torture such a genuine soul with a name like Pinky, no matter the origin story. Perhaps there was another man in his guild with such a name, but he wasn't the one in Phantom's basement at the moment. No doubt that whole tragic tale had been the work of Captive-san's imagination…)

But like her master before, Juvia was unwilling to reveal her own true incompetence to the face of one who so clearly relied on her, "Juvia has learned some things, yes."

She'd learned that he was stubborn, bullheaded, threw himself into fights no matter how disadvantaged he was, loyal and unrelenting. 

He also had eyelashes so long that they brushed his cheeks before his eyes fully shut, he didn't snore in his sleep so much as hum and it made for surprisingly melodic background noise while she read. 

She'd learned that touching him was dangerous, so much so that she'd stopped all together two days ago in fear of melting so thoroughly she'd never recover. 

She'd learned to enjoy the sass he displayed when he was well enough to voice his frustrations. 

She'd learned the way his jaw jutted out, brow raising sharply the moment he was annoyed.

She'd learned the expression he made while he was considering: mouth slightly open, while his tongue ran over his teeth and played with his bottom lip… 

But Juvia didn't say any of this, instead she lied and said, "He claims to be vital to Dreyer-san."

Why she said that, she didn't know.

"Vital in what way?" He asked urgently. 

"He claims…"

Lies are easiest to keep track of and way more believable, when ya stuff as much truth in-between as ya can fit. 

Gajeel had taught her that. It wasn't advice she'd ever planned on using, but in that moment it came to her and she hoped it would help pull her out of the hole she'd dug. 

"He says that taking him was a mistake, that the guild will stop at nothing to get him back." The bluenette began, scrambling to recall all the threats the ice mage had hurled at her his first couple of nights downstairs. "Dreyer-san in particular will deploy everything at his disposal, not limited to Titania and his grandson. Juvia tells you this because she suspects he is more vital than he let on to you."

Why else would a guild master go to such lengths over one rather common-ranking member? The water maiden wasn't even confident Jose would bother sending Sue and Boze to recover her if their roles were reversed, let alone himself or any of the S-Class, and that was before her whole fiasco of getting involved in guild master business. 

In reality, Juvia was only bringing it up because she didn't want Master Jose to lay a hand on him. She'd seen the anger during his interrogation and suspected that the only reason he hadn't doled out the sort of punishment he normally would have to those who back-talked him in the guild, was because Captive-san may well be a favorite of Makarov Dreyer's. 

Juvia just wanted to pack those seeds a little more firmly into the dirt, while her master's mind worked to make them grow. 

Flimsy as the dots the water maiden had connected may have been, it seemed to all make sense in her master's eyes. He nodded to himself, brow heavily furrowed as he twirled one of the points of his hat. "Interesting, very interesting indeed."

She took a deep breath, preparing to plunge headfirst into her riskiest ask, "Juvia thinks it is worthwhile to try and recruit him."

Her master released his hat at once, eyes slightly unfocused, even though she knew she had his undivided attention. "And why's that?"

She swallowed quickly, willing herself to calm as she continued, "From what Juvia has heard, once people join that guild, they never turn away from it. Their loyalty is supposedly unending. If we can turn him against the master – well, it's never been done before. We may be able to deal a personal blow well before any magic is used. Juvia believes the embarrassment could hurt worse than anything we've done so far."

Considering how much they'd already done, especially Gajeel, that claim was the biggest stretch so far. 

"That is interesting indeed." Master Jose mused, back to fiddling with his hat. "Given the smear campaign they've aimed towards us, a solid dose of humiliation may well be exactly what Makarov needs to reevaluate our standing with each other. But is it enough, after those headlines…? I think not." He mumbled.

Her master jerked his head up then, looking right at her as if he'd yet again forgotten her presence, "Make no moves just yet, Juvia. I'll think on it, but it makes no difference until we get the funding from Heartfilia, do you understand?"

Not entirely, but she nodded anyway.

"Good girl." He nodded, attention turned back to his desk, still projected behind him as he shuffled this and that around, "Makarov's day will come, but not until the girl is returned and our branches are back up and running to their fullest capacity. This time next week we'll have returned to our former prestige, just you watch…" 

The water maiden stared at her master, flustered and pledging blind promises to no one, and it dawned on her in that moment that this could very well be the beginning of the end.

It was odd to think about, her heart slowed, not knowing what to think, not wanting to believe, but it sat there before her, making it's presence known.

Phantom Lord may not survive this ordeal.

They were being hit from too many sides; enemies, clients. Even their own people didn't seem all that invested in the future of the guild. 

Master Jose appeared to be grasping at straws that had abandoned him long ago. 

No thoughts seemed to run through her head after that. She turned to leave without being dismissed, something the bluenette would have considered incomparably rude just last week, before her master called out and said, "Be sure to send in Arlo on your way out."

Juvia nodded once, numbly, and shut the door behind herself. 

xGx

It was completely within his right to think that Sue had caused the pain in his head. 

After all, it had been sharper that time, more than any other time before, and it's not like anyone had handed him a book titled: Phantom Lord's Assembly Of Wizards: A Detailed Guide Of All The Magic They're Capable Of And Have Mastered.

Gray had just assumed Jose had chosen the woman specifically to punish him for a job poorly done during his interrogation. 

That the old man would return looking smug, playfully asking him if he'd like to try again , while Gray struggled to collect himself enough to speak around a mouthful of spittle, body heavy and broken within a puddle of his own sweat. 

The Rain Woman had already power-washed him, Gray'd reasoned, maybe someone had made the executive decision to trade her in for a crueler model. 

It's what Fairy Tail would have done, if provoked, why not Phantom?

Well, probably 'cause no one here was bright enough to think of it. 

Sue – no last name –  hadn't been down there a grand total of six minutes before she decided that watching over him was dull, and asking him questions was inane. 

Torture also didn't appeal to her – a sentiment he wished was shared by a certain blue-haired demon – so instead, in a move Gray wouldn't have guessed in his most drunken state, she pulled out a deck of cards and started shuffling and dividing the stack between them.

They had a glorious time.

They played blackjack, go fish, solitaire – that was confusing considering there were two of them with only one deck – gin, and war. 

Gray won every time. 

Neither cheated. 

No one bitched about the game not actually containing any specimen for the sea, wailing to some unseen deity when the prize wasn't fish, declaring the whole thing unfair before they'd even finished round one.

No fights broke out. No one threatened to resurrect the other's mother just to show her what a disappointment her child had become, unable to keep a straight face during a game of poker, as they geared up to throw a nasty punch.

No one ever threw a punch. 

No cake was smashed.

No fires to put out.

No bystanders were harmed in the making of their merriment. 

Most astonishing of all, there was no broken furniture. 

Gray hadn't even known such a thing was possible.

Even when he'd lived with Ur, card games always ended with some broken furniture. 

Then they'd played a rousing game of Is This Your Card? where no clear winner could be determined, and that's when Gray discovered a little problem in his partner. 

Because apparently the girl was so bad at deciphering everyday objects, she couldn't tell a Queen of Hearts from a bottle cap. 

And he didn't mean this as a hyperbole; the ice mage had actually added a leftover bottle cap from yesterday's lunch to the mix, and she was none the wiser .

And in all that time, and all those games, something odd happened: It was no longer a mystery to him why Phantom Lord wasn't cataloged as a dark guild.

Based on the half a dozen people he'd met here, more than a handful of them just didn't seem evil , more like… 

Looney. 

There was definitely something odd about them; any random blind person on the street could see that. But they didn't appear to hold the level of malevolence he would have thought standard for this guild. 

Even Jose didn't seem all that equipped in handling a hostage, he'd forgotten a line of questioning on his way down here, and he'd only needed to remember three !

Gray'd been really impressed when Lucy had escaped their hold, but now, he was left second guessing the difficulty that challenge had actually presented. 

The ice mage was willing to wager that perhaps the blonde made up all of Phantom Lord's history in keeping a hostage, and they were just sorta winging it with him.

Hell, that door down the hall from him probably didn't even have a lock on it! 

Gray had thought of "Black Steel" Gajeel as the face of a lithe, deadly organization willing to do anything, hurt anyone , in an effort to maintain the level of respect they felt they were owed, as the – now number two – wizard guild in the country.

At this point, he was starting to suspect the iron giant of being a general outlier. The Laxus of their guild, so to speak. 

The truth was sort of making itself known, even without his asking: They were all just sorta clowns masquerading without makeup…  

Were it not for these injuries – sustained by that icy-haired bastard of his past, mind you, not a member of Phantom – how difficult would it have been to overtake one of them by now, when the time was right? 

He was willing to bet – not very. 

Meanwhile, if the roles were reversed…  

Actually, Gray didn't like to think of what Fairy Tail would have done with an enemy member of a rival guild, while in an interrogation situation… 

Between Erza, Princess Pinky… 

Mavis forbid someone involved that asshole Laxus… 

He was such a hothead nowadays; he'd nearly choked out Elfman 'cause the dope had accidentally knocked into his chair ' while he was eating. '

It was a good call on Makarov's part that he'd sent him on that extended mission before all this shit went down with the guild wars, he'd probably be in Era right now on murder charges otherwise. 

… 

Y'know, sometimes…  

When you squinted…  

They really come across as the villains… 

At least Mirajane had developed a cooler head after the loss of Lisanna.

He'd hate to know what kind of terror the former She-Devil would have become as an adult…  

"Isssss, this your card?"

"That," Gray sighed, damn near on the verge of tears, "is a pebble." 

"A pebble of hearts ?" She squealed, quickly flashing the rock between her fingers in all her excitement. 

…

By far, this game of cards was the worst he'd been tortured, since he'd got here. 

Well, if you didn't count the hose. 

xGx – Lunch

There was no food. 

Twelve o'clock rolled by. Then one, then two.

Nothing.

He tried not to let it get him down, but it was just very difficult for him to explain to his current guard why he needed food to remain alive.

The irony of this new situation, of just how much his turns had tabled, wasn't lost on him. 

He'd like to think that Sue was being malicious, but when he looked into her eyes, he could tell – with absolute certainty – no thoughts were running around in there. 

Let alone cruel ones.

Thinking back, she'd probably only used that dagger to pick her teeth because she'd honestly believed it was just a very long toothpick. 

She'd probably be shell-shocked to discover it's intended use.

Gray would never consider himself weak, but sometimes the smart thing, the least emotionally exhausting thing, to do was to just give up and wait for a girl with bright blue hair to come to the rescue.

By four o'clock, he'd gone back to reading, Sue having disappeared some time ago on an errand he'd sent her on that he genuinely believed she had no hope of accomplishing.

On The Scale of Task Difficulty , it barely made for a one, but given the mental capacity of the person he'd assigned this dastardly mission to, he may as well have asked a beheaded goose to perform a concerto on a trumpet… 

Meanwhile, things were really starting to heat up in A Vengeful Heart.

"Just do me one favor, and I won't bother you for the rest of the night."

"Jinaya could just as easily do you no favors and receive very similar results," she informed him, brow raised incredulously, "all she has to do is walk away." She began turning, intent on doing just that.

He was in front of her yet again, before she'd even managed a single step. To her surprise, he stepped further into her space, nearly brushing his chest against her own, before gently lifting her chin with the knuckles of two fingers. Silver smiled and hummed, "Say Ahh ."

She did no such thing.

"It won't kill you, I swear."

Jinaya could barely contain her razor smile, but she hoped it conveyed her own intentions well enough, with her mouth preoccupied as it was.

It seemed Silver was getting impatient with her stubbornness. Reaching behind her, Jinaya's heart nearly stopped, thinking he may be going for a knife, but what he actually had was much more on-brand.

"Ice cream." He grinned, making Jinaya see red. "It was supposed to be a surprise. Shoulda known you'd never go for it. Anyway, I think you should try it, I'm sure you'll like it."

As if she had time to indulge this overgrown child in his silly confectionary whims!

Just because he downed gallons of the stuff whenever the mood struck his fancy, did not mean everyone else had nothing better to do than participate in unhinged gluttony.

Her glare could have melted all the snow capping the mountains of his kingdom. "Jinaya will be going n–"

Foolishly, she didn't realize the opportunity she'd handed him when she opened her mouth, and was therefore stunned when he stuck the spoon in.

Her first reaction should have been outrage, followed by strangling, followed by fleeing into the night, her face splashed across wanted posters nationwide come morning, the crime of murdering the Crown Prince with a spoon so egregious and humiliating the Kingdom of Isolde would create a cover story that would make it seem like he'd died in a more humble, tragic way.

In reality, however, she'd probably given him exactly what he wanted.

"It's cold." Jinaya replied dumbly, a hand flying up to her mouth in surprise.

"Yeah, that was kinda implied in the name." Silver shrugged, "We just got the first shipment of the season, and it won't melt this high up in the mountains, so anytime you want some, feel free. You like it?" The prince asked eagerly, leaning forward.

"Yes," Jinaya replied, still feeling a little stunned as she licked the last of the frozen treat off of her spoon, absently.

Gray wished he had some more ice cream…

His thoughts traveled momentarily to that morning, but he shook his concerns away, convincing himself that everything would be fine if he just managed to stop worrying so much.

He refocused on reading. 

Crown Prince Silver was already testing his luck in some new scheme to get poor Jinaya to spend time with him, when Gray heard the door down the hall swing open. 

He lifted his head up expectantly, though his eyes remained on the page, finishing the last bit left, when the newcomer made themselves known. 

It wasn't Sue, the paper and pencil he'd requested in tow. And it wasn't the Rain Woman, come down with a massage chair or whatever she thought might make him forget his imprisonment. 

Instead he was presented with–

"Fuck."

Black Steel. 

He was dressed differently today, wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants with Phantom Lord and their symbol splashed everywhere it could fit.

Mavis, tacky much?

Maybe his careless words to Jose about their ugly flags being torn down nationwide had ignited a bit of pain in the old man and his only way to respond was to force all of his underlings to sport heavily regulated patriotism in their casual wear, until the people of Fiore declared it high fashion. 

Gray didn't know, but he sure hoped it hurt Black Steel's pride to have his own guild's name emblazoned on his ass. 

Gray's eyes slid shut.

Why him?

One could argue that Gray wasn't entirely a nice guy, but they sure as hell couldn't say he deserved this.

The maker mage gave himself just a split second to make a decision; either be a duck and let everything the bastard before him would say to raise his temper roll off like water, or else be a mosquito and try to get in as much self-indulgent hurt as he could inflict on the other boy, before fleeing for his life. 

Perhaps if he'd had lunch he would have gone with mosquito, as it was, duck would have to do.

He reopened his eyes, gaze fixed on the Rain Woman's book–

"Oi, Pretty Boy."

He'd already made his choice, he reminded himself, working to unclench his jaw. 

His tone was clipped and expressionless. "Yeah?"

"You down here alone?"

"Yeah."

"There ain't no one down here with ya?"

He just asked the exact same question , but longer. "No."

"So, there ain't a girl wit' ya?" He raised his hand, just under his shoulder's height, "About yay high?"

Yeah, as a matter of fact she was just under Gray's pillow, the ice mage hadn't told him yet, simply because he enjoyed being a tricky little stinker, but by asking a third time, he'd managed to break the spell. "No." He deadpanned, flipping to the next page.

Black Steel dragged a hand down his face, "Where the fuck are ya, Ame-Onna?" He muttered.

Gray blinked, the spite he'd felt bubbling up disappearing suddenly.

The Rain Woman wasn't honestly… missing , right? Surely Black Steel was just aggressively unobservant, the kind of person who could be on a quest to find his own mother and walk by her eight times before he even left his house. 

The alternative… 

The image of her face when she'd left with Jose came back full force and that sense of dread resurfaced.

He couldn't say for certain if she'd looked any paler when she left, her natural skin tone seemed to match pretty well with a ghost day-to-day, but her eyes had been so dark. Almost haunted.

Gray opened his mouth to ask for more details, how long had she been gone, where had he looked, before he remembered just who the other occupant in the dungeon was.

He had no business asking Black Steel anything. 

That feeling only redoubled when a very important question floated through his mind. 

Should he even be worried if she was missing?

Technically, her being gone was to his benefit. After all, she was the person who'd captured him, and she was the one keeping an ever watchful eye on his occupation of this cell, maybe her being gone was a blessing. If Jose had off'd the girl who'd brought him here, so low and defeated, perhaps he should celebrate.

Right?

He would be more certain if only he knew all of her actions came from a place of hateful determination, a steely eyed desire to see Fairy Tail fall to it's knees.

If the Rain Woman was the bastard pacing before him now, Gray probably would have broken out the maracas.

But in all the time they'd been down here together, she hadn't once brought up his guild. She didn't seem the least bit interested in the war they'd plunged into, hadn't interrogated him yet.

A part of him had believed that once he started eating, she'd use it as a hook, a way to get him talking if he wanted more food, but all of yesterday she only nodded, completely satisfied that he'd eaten, never asking for anything more… 

Oh, he couldn't believe this, was he actually starting to feel some concern for this girl? 

Gray looked up then jumped, startled to discover Black Steel inches from him as he peered into his cell. 

The Phantom mage's studded brow shot up, expression – comically – leaning towards concerned, "You ain't eat her, did ya?"

Right. Because of the two of them, Gray seemed the most likely to succumb to the tantalizing and forbidden allure of cannibalism. 

Despite not finishing the page he was on, he turned it soundly, hoping the action may spur the Phantom mage into leaving. 

It did catch Black Steel's attention, but not in the way that he'd hoped. "What are you doing?"

"Reading." 

" Whatta ya reading?"

What, was this guy lonely or something? "A book."

"A book about what?"

Gray looked up, nostrils flared, fully annoyed. 

See, this was not the sort of conversation he'd be having with the Rain Woman. She'd have probably come down with a profuse apology on her lips and a violin under her arm, tuned to perfection so he'd have a bit of atmosphere while he indulged in a twenty-pound crab cake. 

When she came back – and she would – his first order of business would be telling her just how sorry he was for his behavior, especially when she'd been reading . This day had proven to Gray that if he had to deal with any of the crazies in Phantom, he'd honestly prefer it be her. 

The ice mage pasted on a salty smile, before declaring, "It's a book about people who do stuff."

Black Steel stopped short, studded brow twitching wildly, "You're real clever, ya know that? Super fuckin' smart."

Word for word, that was exactly what his kindergarten teacher had noted on his very first report card.

The violent bastard stepped back, tossing over his shoulder as he marched back the way he'd come, "If Puddle gets here first, tell her I'm looking for her." 

"Nope." 

Black Steel was in front of Gray's cell within seconds, "Fuck you mean, nope ?" 

"I'm a prisoner, not a messenger." Being a duck did not make him spineless. 

" You're a little piece of shit, that's what ya are! " 

"Fine, but still not a messenger." 

He could see from the look in Black Steel's eyes, hell-fire dancing in his garnet depths, that he'd like nothing more than to pop Gray's head off like a bottle cap. Instead he seethed, openly, head tilted slightly to the side while he surveyed the maker mage with unfiltered rage.

Then, very suddenly, his neck popped back into place, straight and relaxed, his eyes calm.

He was so calm, the self-satisfied smile Gray was sporting wiped itself clean without him really telling it to.

"Have it your way." He shrugged. 

Then, before Gray had a chance to guess what could have possibly turned his mood around, Black Steel waltzed over to the Rain Woman's chair, leaned over it and snuffed out the candle. 

Immediately, a third of his light was gone.

Gray jerked his head back to his book, the words now barely legible in the near total darkness, and understood what the other boy was trying to do.

In the shadows, Black Steel grinned wickedly.

"Oh, no. Oh, come on! I have nothing else." 

His words only seemed to fuel the depravity running loose in Black Steel's dark little heart. Moving with no hurry, he was upon the second candle within moments and delivered a fatal blow to that flame as well.

The third candle was so far down the hall, it did nothing to really aid in his reading, but malicious as Black Steel was, he took that one out too, darkening the dungeon to the point that the ice mage couldn't see his own legs.

" You are such a dick! " Gray roared, well and truly furious.

Under the booming echo of his last word, the maker mage was sure he heard the sound of a delightfully amused " Gi-hee! ", just before the door slammed shut and he was plunged into complete darkness.

xGx – Dinner

"Dinner."

Gray picked up the fork – feeling rather famished after the two hours he'd spent explaining how water and ice were different mediums to Sue, who'd left to test out his theories that putting ice in glass with water wouldn't instantaneously explode – only to stop, disgust overriding his previous thoughts. 

He hadn't noticed the low pitch of the voice that had spoken, more focused on getting some food in him, but when the sound of metal hitting stone resounded around his cell, making him jump, Gray did a double-take to the person on the other side of his bars.

It was no blue haired girl. 

Who was this bozo?

He was bald, with dark skin very close in coloring to Sue, and narrow eyes– or eye. He was sporting broken glasses, one dark pane hiding a peeper, while the other one was left cold and exposed to the elements.

Like Black Steel, he wore a guild-provided t-shirt and gray sweatpants, both emblazoned with their emblem, though he had a bright, reddish-purple jacket covering most of his shirt up. Also like the violent man Gray had met before, he had small bandages on his face and hands, as well as wrappings peeking out around his neck. 

And a scowl.

They had that in common, too. 

But Gray would have been willing to let all of that go – he didn't stay for the atmosphere or pleasant conversation, he stayed because he was physically incapable of escaping at the moment – the thing that actually grabbed his goose was the puddle of slop he'd been presented with on a nickel-plated platter. "What the hell is this?"

" Dinner ." Broken Glasses, reiterated, not bothering to pause as he made his way almost out of sight.

That word was apparently very subjective, because the maker mage had seen old paper mache projects that had more curb appeal than what he was looking at.

For one thing, this tray was about three times smaller than any of the meals the Rain Woman had ever brought him.

Even when they'd been giving each other the cold shoulder, she'd always arrived with food Gray had to work hard to resist.

What sat before him now seemed like a prime example of why the Fiorian Department of Food Safety had a budget increase year after year. It was the poster child of food poisoning. 

By Mavis, this could damn near be considered actual prison food. 

There was meat.

…He supposed. 

It was unnaturally rectangular, stiff, and unscented. Under the gentle tones of candlelight, it looked like plain rubber. 

There was a bowl too, but with such a pitiful portion inside, they could have saved themselves the trouble of washing dishes later and just plopped it directly into his bottle cap of spades. 

As for what was actually in it…

Well. 

It looked like oats, but it smelled like fish; never a good sign.  

The most edible thing before him appeared to be a puddle of green goo. 

But the maker mage would have been willing to give it a try. Maybe its looks were just deceiving . Perhaps it was a dish of sweet peas lovingly sauteed within a pad of full cream butter and garlic, strained and pureed with a sprig of rosemary and a dash of honey, before being topped with freshly cracked black pepper, and sent down to him with pride.

It could have been all of those things.

But Gray would never know, because it had all been spilled on the floor after the bastard had carelessly dropped his tray!

"Are you guys seeing other prisoners? Is that it?" If not the food, that could at least explain the bluenette's sudden disappearance from the dungeon. 

Without so much as a goodbye, he might add. 

The footsteps stopped. "What."

Gray poked at the mystery meat, dissatisfied, "Did you have to sacrifice the food budget just because we're on the run? Up my bounty a bit, I'm sure someone at the guild will pay for it if they hear it's for a good cause."

Broken Glasses reappeared, his expression somehow more sour than before, "I get humor might help you through this, but don't forget you're our's for now. I'm guessing you're pampered in your guild by violins and steak every night, but here, you'll take what we give you." 

He looked Gray over once, with a contempt the ice mage barely noticed, because he, in turn, was trying to figure out if the eyewear situation he had going on was for fashion or utility. 

Certainly, it had to have been a deliberate choice, aiding in some way to his magic? No one would actually dress like that? Not if they had working lacrima-bulbs in their home… 

Unable to hear Gray's derisive thoughts, Broken Glasses continued with a scoff, "You should count yourself lucky we're not serving you toenails and lint, like some have suggested." 

"Are you sure that's not what you gave me?" Gray muttered back, unable to help himself when faced with such an unpleasant hodgepodge of barely edible food items before him, "Damn. What I wouldn't give to go back twelve hours and try another go at this morning's breakfast." 

The bread had been so warm…  

"Hold up," And Broken Glasses actually raised a hand as if he could halt their conversation for a bit, "Is this not what you've been eating since you got here?" 

Gray's mouth moved, but no words left, realizing between one moment and the next, he may have let on something he shouldn't have. 

"No, it's just…" He was desperate to come up with an excuse on the fly, but confusion left him drawing a blank. "Y'know… it's been some time, we kinda know each other, we're all family here. Maybe a grilled cheese every so often wouldn't break the bank! That's all."

When all this was over, Gray was gonna take an hour out of each day to practice lying , because the squeaks his voice had produced at the tail end of each of those sentences echoed painfully back at him in the basement. Doubling – tripling – his humiliation. 

While the ice mage was working to smooth out his grimace, Broken Glasses took a step closer to his cell, squatting until he was eye level with Gray.

The movement reminded him sharply of the blue-haired girl, but he had nowhere near the grace or fluidity as he made his way down.

"Oh, we family, now?" He challenged, mismatched eyes probing Gray in a way that saw right through him, " Really ? Then what's my name?"

His question only added another dollop of confusion to the sundae of bewilderment that was currently muddling Gray's mind. 

He'd met this man five minutes ago , and at no point did he introduce himself, of that Gray was certain. How the hell was he supposed to know–?

"Bro–?" 

No! Don't say that one, anything but that one!

But his traitorous tongue remained still, leaving his lips plenty of room to form the B sound over and over without interruption, until he stuttered out, "Bro–? Bo… B– Bo… Boze..?" 

It was better than bozo , but not by much, and Gray winced painfully as though he could already feel the teeth he would be forced to swallow in the next two minutes as the man before him pulled his arm back to–

Nothing could have surprised him more than when Boze (???) reached through the bars to slap Gray's shoulder, grinning broadly.

"Well alright, man!" He crowed, pulling the tray of slop out with one swift movement, before standing to his full height, much to Gray's open-mouthed bewilderment. "I'll see what I can do about that grilled cheese. Maybe send over that list of demands to your guild, just for laughs, y'know. You wanna a juice box?"

"Y–? Yeah?" Gray whispered, voice newly squeaky, sure this was some kinda trick. 

"I got you, man." He vowed, jabbing his finger directly at the ice mage's heart, which Gray mistakenly took as a threat for a solid second, before he realized it was a genuine gesture of the man's dedication. 

"Th–? Thank–! Thank you?" 

Twenty minutes later, Gray was sitting up in his cell, munching on a beautifully toasted smoked-gouda-and-black-peppered-provolon-on-onion-rye grilled cheese, still trying to work out what had happened.

Every so often he would pause his contemplation, to sip on juice. He'd had his choice, cranberry or apple, and because he enjoyed pushing his luck, he'd asked for both, which Boze was more than happy to comply with.

It was even chilled .

And after all that thinking he could really only come to one conclusion:

Just as he'd thought.

Clowns . 

Sans . 

Makeup!

xJx

Her hair was wet, hat discarded by her side while she lay on the rooftop, her wool dress darkening with every drip, drip, drop that landed on her. 

That's how she was, wasn't she? Just the same. 

It's why she entered every room with the same onomatopoeia, a warning and a declaration at once. 

Drip. 

Drip. 

Drop. 

Beware, for the Rain Woman was now upon you.

Her eyes were closed but it didn't matter, she knew those clouds so well, she could describe every puff, every curve, every dark shadowy inch that expanded across the endless sky to an artist, by heart.

Those clouds were etched in her heart, a part of her, just as much as the blood within her veins. 

Is that where they would remain? Forever? Her only reliable companion, the only stable thing by her side, a semi-living shadow, her nightmare, her friend? 

I have debated retiring you from the guild.

A moment of recklessness, when she'd intended to help, had not only made a prisoner of war out of an innocent man, but had nearly landed her an expulsion from the sole place on Earthland willing to accept her, despite her shortcomings. 

Drip. Drip. Drop. 

Perhaps she ought to embrace them, perhaps they hurt, they cried when she rejected the clouds just as soundly as everyone seemed to reject her.

There were plenty of benefits to ridding Phantom Lord of your presence, as I'm sure you're aware. 

The near constant overcast days when you can't be bothered to leave town, with no consideration of those around you, who also have desires.

Yesterday, I made preparations for your exit… 

I don't have time to be angry with you, Juvia… 

Juvia chuckled, not a drop of humor found within her. 

The words bounced and buzzed around her head, echoing terribly, seeming to sway and twirl to the beat of her aching heart, as though they were the lyrics of a horrific ballad, written to her personally by a world that wanted her gone.

We could get disbanded.

A terrible thought, something that occurred to her that first night, while Captive-san lay asleep. 

It had weakened her knees, turned her stomach. Left her hollow and panicked.

Why she'd sought reprieve in a stranger's face she didn't know, but when she watched him, learned the curves of his cheekbones, listened to the thrum of his breathing, she'd been able to pull her panic into something more bearable, something she could work around, think around. 

She'd focused her energy on making him better, to the point of near madness, preferring to have that goal in the forefront of her mind, as opposed to her fears. He made it especially easy for her, when he fought so aggressively against her, as well as his best interests. 

The relief she felt, now that he was eating, was greater than she'd anticipated.

She didn't have the… 

How could she return, of her own free will and face that man again, knowing she'd taken his? 

Her fault he was in this mess, her fault he was in such terrible shape. 

So she remained on the roof, skin irritated and swollen from the torrent coming down from the sky, her eyes unseeing as they observed a view she'd had all her life.

She closed her eyes. 

We could get disbanded.

Also, her fault. 

The last thought she'd had when she'd escaped Master Jose's office; that everything around them would crumble, just like the guildhall before, and why? 

Because of her.

They'd taken her in, and she'd repaid that kindness with thoughtless destruction.

Her master was right to have considered getting rid of her. If she were brave she'd leave of her own volition, right then, freeing them. 

But then… what would become of her, where could she go?

An empty, black chasm appeared in her mind's eye, so she opened her real ones, preferring to get water in them rather than face such a devastating truth. 

She was not brave. 

What would happen to Gajeel?

A worse thought. Who would take in her only friend, he had no one, just like her. But unlike her, his pride would never allow him to show his hurt to the world.

He would reject her as well, if only to finally get the chance to. He'd warned her this would happen. He knew what she feared most. He would not absolve her of her crimes with his presence.

Her companionship was probably worse than complete isolation in his eyes. 

From there… 

He'd lash out.

He'd make himself appear more violent, more unfeeling. 

The Least Vulnerable Man On Earthland.

He'd lose the pleasant person she knew he could become, choosing an ironclad set of armor forged from cruelty.

This was worse than imagining her own fate… 

Totomaru, Sol, Aria, Sue, Boze.

All strong, all pleasant. Not necessarily to her , but in general…

They'd have none of the adversities she and Gajeel would have to overcome. Any guild would be happy to snatch them up, happy to have them around .

Juvia closed her eyes again, another truth appearing before her:

She was not looking forward to a future where her only companions were the storm clouds above her. 

A/N

I'd just like to say thank you to everyone reading this story. I haven't responded to most of the comments because I'm a bit too flustered by positive feedback, but I'd like everyone to know that I've read them and it really helps push me towards writing more, if only to satisfy all of your curiosity.

The next chapter will take a little longer to upload, maybe 10 days to 2 weeks. I'll try my hardest to keep up this momentum, I've started three stories now and I'd like to actually have one finished by the end of February. I think it will give me the confidence to continue Will You Play House With Me and No Longer Left Behind , two stories that I love deeply, but often fry my brain trying to pace and develop the story within canon.

So, see you soon, and thanks for giving me even a moment of your attention, I hope to keep you entertained.

Mwah!

Chapter Text

xGx

"Jose-sama has rejected your letter."

The ice mage inhaled deeply, startled out of his sleep by a quiet voice that seemed to loom down, from above. 

It was the Rain Woman. Gray's eyes bounced toward the clock – it was a little after 1AM.

After almost an entire day, she'd returned. He sat up, struggling to shake the sleep off of himself, even when he ran a rough hand through his stiff, oily hair, grunting out, "And why's that?" 

"Juvia would not know." She replied simply, "However, in light of you making formal requests, he made one for you in return."

The door to his cell swung open, and she stepped in briefly, placing a slip of paper on the floor beside his cot, before returning to the hall. 

Gray unfolded it, curious why she didn't just hand it to him directly, while he squeezed his eyes shut repeatedly, trying to clear his vision of any blurriness.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust enough for him to see in the low light, before he read what was written. 

He blinked again, certain he'd misread it the first time.

' Take a bath, you filthy delinquent. '

Fascinating. It was only six words yet all of them managed to make him want to fly into a rage.

"What the fuck–?" The audacity of that old coot! He wore greasy-hair as a style , and then had the nerve to turn around and call Gray dirty?

The only reason the ice mage was in this shitty position was because of the negligence he condoned as guild master of one of the most barbaric guilds Gray had ever set foot in! 

He crumbled the note in his fist, so lost in his mental tirade against Jose, he didn't notice the Rain Woman hadn't yet closed the door. 

"Please follow Juvia."

He whipped his head toward her, the outrage within finally spilling out, "Did you see what he said to me?"

"No. Please follow Juvia," she repeated tonelessly, turning on her heels, back the way she'd come. 

"I mean, in the first place, my request was for a bath, so where does he get off–? Wait– Did he even read my letter?"

"Juvia would have no way of knowing," she replied so quietly Gray had no choice but to rush to his feet and try to follow her.

With so many days behind him in row spent either on his back or sitting down, vertigo was inevitable.

Unfortunately, Gray hadn't been thinking this way, so he was just as shocked as the Rain Woman when, seconds after he'd caught up with her, his body decided it didn't know it's ups from it's downs, and he went crashing into her back.

If it was a shock for him, that went double for the bluenette who struggled to carry his weight, barely managing to hold him up before his chin landed solidly on her shoulder.

Even keeping his eyes open was a struggle in that moment, his lids unusually heavy while his blood circulated wildly, but through his lashes he watched as she turned her neck, dark blue eyes wide, to stare down at him in open-mouthed distress. 

They stood there like that for a good minute, less than an inch between them, before his weight must have become too much for her to bear, and she collapsed, Gray landing fully on top of her.

His body was both numb but buzzing with more energy than he'd felt in ages. The only steady thing he could focus on within himself was his heartbeat, but it did no good trying to listen as the rhythm continued picking up speed, doubling, tripling , over itself. Even as he tried steadying his own breathing, it seemed to rebel, far outpacing even the blood rushing in his ears, until it became something frantic and entirely on it's own.

You can't just lay there, a little voice piped up, don't forget, you're heavier than you look, for all you know, you could crush her!

The ice mage nodded, as if the voice belonged to someone other than his own thoughts, and worked to push himself up. 

It wasn't easy, given that his head felt full of cotton and one of his arms was still numb, but he worked with what he had available to him. Thankfully he wasn't in any pain, the fall had been surprisingly easy on his head, especially considering how quickly and unexpectedly the dizziness had overwhelmed him.

Still, he had crash-landed on her, and no amount of bad blood between their guilds was enough of an excuse to take her down while her back was turned. The apology he wanted to get out, tumbling clumsily from his lips, didn't exactly address that though. 

"Sorry… I don't know… I didn't expect–"

He wasn't really expecting a response on her part, but if he had been, it certainly wouldn't have been the, " Hm! " she squeaked out, interrupting his pathetic ramblings. 

What an odd way to respond… But even then, the thought was distant, so deep in the fog was he.

He wasn't sure why she didn't flip over and push him off of her, instead of just lying there, all shocked. It couldn't be comfortable lying on her front like that.

Gray blinked.

He could see her face.

How could she be lying face down… if he could see her face…?

All at once the fog seemed to lift from his brain, and within that split second it became clear why the girl beneath him was just laying there in mute shock.

His hand, the one he was using to hold himself up, the one that he'd been championing for having the courage to shake off it's vertigo early and put in the work while it's weaker twin was lost to him, that one , was filled to the brim, fingertip to wrist, with her right breast.

His mouth dropped open, almost exactly mirroring her expression of surprise, when he realized that that meant that the place where his face had landed before, when he was oh so pleasantly surprised he hadn't felt any pain , was also probably her chest.

He reeled back immediately, heat scorching his face, neck, and ears, and tried to push off from the floor and stand, but his knees buckled last second and he was stuck, straddling her, right there, in the middle of the dungeon corridor.

It could not get much worse. 

"I'm sorr–!"

Oh boy, was he wrong. 

She exploded . 

And he didn't mean, like in anger or anything. He meant, she literally went BOOM!

One moment her bright red face was underneath him, the next thing he knew he was face down in a pool of water, the girl completely gone. 

Gray scrambled to his knees, panicking.

He looked left, then right. Then above, before below.

She was gone. Nothing occupied that dark, dingy hall, but Gray and some damp concrete floors.

He tried to breathe, but nothing would come out. 

How was he going to explain this?

Black Steel for certain would neve r believe she'd just spontaneously combusted five seconds after she'd let him out of his cell – the stupid brute would kill him on sight, before he even got a word out to defend himself.

Jose…

Jose.

He didn't want to think about Jose. 

Sue… may not be aware of any difference. 

But Boze would never believe they were family now!

The urgency to break out of Phantom's dungeon suddenly returned full-force, while his hands frantically tried to pull different groups of puddle across the floor, desperately trying to piece together–?

What? 

Her? What was left of her power, he did'n–

How could he just kill her like that?

Sure, they'd had a few moments of contention, by Mavis her little nickname for him had driven him up the wall, but he'd never meant –!

He'd had no warning she was so fragile . The way she spoke, he assumed she was some kind of water warrior, and now she was nothing.

Now she was dead! 

And worse, her last moments on Earthland had been with a strange man's hand on her–

"Juvia…"

What an undignified way to go. He almost felt like crying.

Scratch that, he was. 

His vision began to blur so much, his brain started seeing faces in the water. Gray sniffed, one hand cupped, pitifully shallow, while his other went to work dribbling little droplets into his palm that spilled through his fingers twice as quickly as he'd collected them.

"Captive-san."

Oh, Mavis that's right, she never even knew his real name. He'd always planned on telling her, making a special little day trip to Era once she was sentenced, just to satisfy her curiosity and now –

She'd never know the truth… 

"Juvia's hand…"

…Her–? 

He didn't have very strong opinions on her hands, he had no idea why his subconscious would suddenly bring them up. 

"Juvia hates to be a bother, but she really rather needs that to… finish her body."

Gray looked up from his rather pointless task, to stare into the face of the girl he was so certain he'd just murdered, to find her unharmed, if not slightly bemused.

What the…?

Gray hopped up, eyes wild as if he were the first person to ever come face-to-face with a ghost, "You were just–!" 

She didn't ignore him, not really, but she did sidestep him, to touch the sleeve of her dress to the remaining bit of water still collected there, on the concrete floor.

Stepping back in front of him, the Rain Woman flexed the fingers of a hand that had not been there just a moment before. A hand she seemed to have pulled from thin air. 

No.

A hand she'd pulled right out of… 

The puddle.

A puddle , she'd been a… 

Suddenly, Black Steel's nickname for her made a whole lot more sense. 

xGx

"So, what happens to your clothes?"

The Rain Woman clutched the collar of her dress tightly, surveying him with wide, distrustful eyes, that reminded him sharply of how he'd discovered her little power to begin with, "Juvia wouldn't know."

He had the good sense to feel some residual embarrassment, but continued his line of questioning, more than a little fascinated, "But they show up on you, when you're done?"

"Yes."

"Every time?"

"Yes."

How lucky for her, not only could she turn non-corporeal, she didn't have to worry about being ass naked whenever she decided to reform.

Gray kicked his leg out, forlornly; some people had all the luck… 

"This is why Juvia warned Captive-san not to try fighting her," She hummed with a knowing shake of her head, "Juvia cannot be beat with physical attacks, she takes no damage."

His thoughts had strayed that way as well; when he realized she was perfectly fine after self-imploding, it occurred to him then that his usual moves – Ice Make: Lance, Excalibur – weren't gonna cut it with her. 

He was glad he knew that now, tucking away the little tibbit for later, when he was back in his cell and formulating a plan of escape. This was perhaps the most vital piece of information he'd collected so far. 

Second to Jose, the Rain Woman was going to be his biggest obstacle out of here once his magic returned. Even above Black Steel, he saw that now. 

"So, if you wanted to rob a bank," Gray began idly, taking in the interior design choices of the dungeon while they walked. 

Color him thoroughly unimpressed, by the way. Not much to look at. It was sparse, dingy and dimly lit. Every so often they came across a pile of tarps someone must have tossed down here and forgot about, there were your typical hodge-podge of discarded wooden planks and stacks of molding party chairs, which he felt were rather derivative, aesthetics-wise. Given the amount of space – by Mavis the halls just kept going – he was kinda disappointed. No bone piles, bloody puddles, or cries from the damned could be heard floating towards him. The halls were bare concrete floors and sad stone walls, with the occasional wooden pillar holding it all up. 

Very uninspired. 

Gray wouldn't be handing any anonymous tips to Villainous Lairs Quarterly, that's for sure. 

But back to his question, "I guess getting in the vault would be easy, it's getting out with all those duffel bags…"

The bluenette looked scandalized, dare he say, more so now then when she'd been under him, "Juvia would never rob a bank!"

"Why?" He asked, completely flummoxed,  "You don't like free money?" This girl just got stranger and stranger…  

"Because it is morally bankrupt." Juvia clarified. 

Please . 

"This is just between me and you, alright? Let's leave morals on the back porch, for a second." She certainly seemed to have no problem abandoning them where he was concerned. "Some silly goose leaves a little gap in the vault door, you happen to pass by. Exactly how much space would need to be opened for you to accidentally, y'know… trip inside empty-handed, then trip outside, hands full?"

She shook her head, lips poked out in condemnation, "Jose-sama warned Juvia of Fairy Tail's wanton ways, but she didn't want to bel–!"

" Wanton ?" Gray repeated, tone stuck somewhere between a gasp and a belly laugh, "You've gotta be kidding me!"

"She is not, and your line of questioning only proves Jose-sama's warnings to be true."

"If Jose-sama ," Gray used heavy finger-quotes there, "has been going around warning people of our wanton ways , it's only because he doesn't know the definition of that word."

" How dare you ," She breathed; you'd think he'd just proposed eating kittens, "Jose-sama received top marks at his wizard academy, he's been master of this guild longer than either of us have been alive, he's a Wizard Saint –!"

"Who apparently doesn't own a dictionary." Gray cut in. "Here, I'll tell you the definition, you can look it up later if you want. But first, tell me if it matches up with anything the old ghoul has said about us."

Her expression was cautious, but she didn't stop him speaking into her ear. 

By the time he was done, her face was beet-red once again. She didn't even need to say anything else, to confirm his suspicions, her wide eyes did all the talking.

But because Gray was a nice guy – and he'd had his fair share of embarrassment not too long ago – he didn't make her sit and wallow in it. Instead, he picked up right where they'd left off.

"Ok, so the bank has actually been robbing widows and orphans, snatching up all their milk money and spitting on them for not carrying more with them. The town calls you to rid them of these horrific thugs, and they already have a blueprint to sneak into the vault–"

"No." 

" What do you mean no!? " He could not have made the bank look more terrible if he'd tried! "The town is requesting it, they want the money back from the bankers–!"

Her nose was firmly in the air, as if she had word from some self-appointed deity that she was the only one on Earthland correctly abiding by their holy word, "Then Juvia would not rob them, she would compel them to look into their hear–!"

"Bullshit!"

"It is not!" She exclaimed, with a stomp of her foot, looking just as outraged as he felt, "Juvia would ask them nicely, and they would see how greed can corrupt the soul, and feel terrible for their misdeeds and return the money!"

"Is this before or after Santa Claus descends from the sky and gifts us all with the power to shit cinnamon-scented cotton candy for the rest of our lives?" 

She tsked impatiently, "You sound like Gajeel-kun."

" First of all," Gray started, a finger in the air while he tried to digest that one, "there's no need to run around here, calling me slurs."

The Rain Woman's mouth tightened into a pout, but he was sure it was to hide her smile. 

They turned another corner, that appeared to be the very end of this maze Phantom tried to pass off as a dungeon. At the end of the hall were two doors, each with a portrait hanging to depict which gender went where.

The real trick was for Gray to try and decipher where the hell he was supposed to go. 

He turned back to the Rain Woman to get a second opinion on what an inverted octopus could possibly mean versus a single purple dot, but her expression stopped him short.

Her face was distant, almost forlorn, and Gray had a hard time pinpointing what could have changed between one second and the next.

"Are you al–?"

The bluenette stepped forward, pulling out a drawstring sack from Mavis alone knew where, and presented it to him. 

"This is a bag of toiletries," She explained gravely, lifting the bit of slate velvet up so he could get a better look. "There is shampoo, conditioner, lotion, deodorant, soap, a bath linen, and…"

Her voice went wispy at the end, like she was on the verge of tears, and Gray took a step back without thought, startled.

Didn't matter, enemy or ally, he did not do well with crying girls.

Just as quickly as he'd backed away, Juvia closed the distance between them again, going a step further until he could see the wetness clinging to her lashes, reflecting back soft, golden candlelight within the trapped droplets before she reached for him, her fingertips so near his cheek there was hardly enough room for any air to exist between them, and whispered, "There is also a razor…"

That statement was delivered so dramatically, with so much tension and heated, unspoken suspense, for reasons just beyond his comprehension, Gray felt a little angry that that was all she had to say.

"Probably would have discovered that on my own, thanks." Stepping out of the strange little enclosure he'd found himself locked in with her, the maker mage went to grab up the pouch, but she stopped him.

"Juvia understands why Jose-sama made the request, you are clearly in need of it," Her hand went to his shoulder while she gazed into his eyes.

He wouldn't say clearly; sure he'd skipped a couple days, but no one required a gas mask to be in his presence. Plus, he hadn't exactly insisted that morning, Jose was just a dramatic prick, if he'd had access to a shower earlier, he damn well would have used it.

"Just…" Her hand slipped down his arm, squeezed his wrist gently, " Please," She whispered seriously, "do not take extreme measures as a means to escape your imprisonment."

In a normal situation, he would have laughed at what she was implying – Gray had a great fondness of suicide jokes that bordered on disconcerting – but her expression was so serious he stopped just in time.

"Yeah." He replied, and was a bit shocked at the softness of his own voice, as if he wanted to reassure her of his safety.

Ironic, given the circumstances.

"My plans in there begin and end at freshening up." He continued, jerking his head towards the door, "Then I'm coming right back."

For some reason he didn't feel that was enough reassurance – she just kept staring at him, fingers locked around his wrist – so he went on, babbling, "I'm only on chapter eight of that book you gave me; I've gotta know if she kills that oblivious prince – some blonde chick showed up, apparently they're betrothed, and now I'm afraid he's gonna go and ditch her over a sense of duty and parental expectations . She said she was fine with it if that happens, but I'm already calling bullshit. She's either gonna snap and throw a fit, or else break his neck and leave Blondie suspended from one of their fancy chandeliers by a couple yards of silk. That's the only exit plan I can see. Which is sad, I was really rooting for them– Much better than his bastard brother, I'll tell you that, the moment I saw him I just wanted to stab him where he stood. 

"And then I have to teach Sue the difference between different zoo animals, 'cause I'm genuinely afraid she's gonna get her face mauled off by a bear, thinking it's a lemur or something. After that, I promised to help Boze pick out some new glasses, though how he plans on getting them shipped to a moving guild hall, is beyond me. The postman would likely get trampled just trying. Anyway, my entire week's booked, I couldn't fit in a near-death experience even if I wanted to."

Finally, thankfully, the words stopped coming.

He really couldn't help himself, could he?

Gray'd made no less than five references to death in that one reply!

Even as he heard each one drop from his lips, the bluenette's eyes widening in concern with every release, he'd kept going, while internally wishing for Earthland's strongest super glue to appear outta thin air and seal his mouth shut. 

It may well be time to admit he had a problem... 

xGx

Phantom Lord's shower room was rather typical of what one would find at a gym. Rows of lockers in one section, a few steam rooms that appeared to be out of order at the moment, and a back room full of shower stalls.

It was quiet in an eerie way, every little sound amplified ten-fold, including his breaths. The air held a slight dampness to it, that wasn't altogether unpleasant, more like there might be a window tucked away somewhere that somehow had left open while it rained outside.

Not all of the overhead lacrima lights worked, creating shadows along spaces that had no business looking so dark. 

If the circumstances had been a bit different, the ice mage would have snarked that this was the perfect setting for his senseless murder to take place, before backing out of there the same way he'd come in. 

As it was, a small part of him welcomed the chance of an attack. He'd be able to get out a bit of frustration, and if anyone had anything to say about it, he could just cry self-defense.

A true win-win in his book.

It was cuddly thoughts like that which occupied his mind, while he skipped and whistled all the way to the back room, where the showers were.

Gray'd picked one at random and stripped, happy to discard his clothes, so uncomfortably stretched out of shape from old, dried sweat and spotted with droplets of blood from the injury Lyon had given him.

As he did so, Gray was reminded that he'd need to be careful of his wrappings, and try not to get them wet if he could help it. 

The ice mage stretched slightly, cautious of any strain, but was happy to discover only the slightest hint of lingering soreness. Judging from that alone, he could safely assume it had entered the final stage of healing over.

If that was the case… 

He unraveled the linen quickly, until his chest and shoulder were completely bare, and examined the exposed skin there.

Bruises. That was all that remained of his fight with that bastard on Galuna Island. The skin wasn't even puckered around the stitches anymore, he could probably get them out by that afternoon.

A grin broke out across his face then, as he tossed his bandages out. Finally things seemed to be going in his favor!

Suppressing a whoop, the ice mage returned to his chosen shower and turned it on.

Contrary to what most people might think, Gray did not appreciate a cold shower. He actually loathed them, so he was more than pleasantly surprised when he'd discovered the shower stall filled with steam within seconds of fiddling with the knobs.

As the steam from his shower began to crawl it's way out from behind the curtain, Gray grabbed up the cloth satchel the Rain Woman had handed him with tears in her eyes. 

He unraveled the drawstring, pulling out all of the toiletries to give them each a little once over – because honestly, did he think a member of Phantom Lord was really above swapping out the shampoo for ultimate-strength hair remover? 

No. Not really.

It's probably what his guild would have done, had the roles been reversed. Y'know, just for laughs. 

But every bottle and package appeared to be unopened, and a quick sniff told him that the ginger-white peach fragrance they boasted on each and every label, was exactly what was inside.

Everything appeared on the up-and-up, so he hopped back in the shower, without further delay. 

Gray wasn't a strong believer of Heaven on Earth , but thirty minutes in that shower nearly converted him. He went from just standing there, staring at nothing while the water ran over his head, searing white-hot rivulets down his back, to performing Top 40 hits to all of his fans in the lone shower stall.

He didn't leave until every part of him squeaked . 

He was so clean strangers could have eaten directly off his stomach and walked away healthier than before.

He smelled so good he could have seduced Jose Porla into just letting him go; and while Gray never planned on actually doing that, he couldn't deny, it was nice to have that option stored away in his back pocket.

By the time his shower was done, Gray yanked back the little curtain with a flourish, bowing deeply to the thousands of fans he had, no doubt, hidden just behind the mountain of steam clouding Phantom's locker room.

It took talent to fill such a large space with all that fog, he deserved the standing ovations.

He tugged the towel down from the hook, spirits still high, and skipped his way over to where he'd left his–

His clothes were gone. 

Gray stared down at the spot, completely and utterly bereft of the clothes he knew he'd left there and inhaled deeply, mildly discomforted by the steam filling his nose, but knowing that truly, that was the least of his problems just then. 

So this was the trick. 

Sure, let the Fairy scum bathe, but who said anything about letting him re-dress?

Juvenile to the end … 

Would it be comfortable spending the rest of his captivity naked in his cell, being stared at and, more than likely, judged by the Rain Woman and her cohorts? No. But he would not have to suffer the level of humiliation they were looking forward to.

He never thought he'd be grateful for it, but finally after all these years, his biggest character flaw would be put to use as an asset. 

He'd unknowingly been training for this day for ten whole years. 

So, Gray lifted his chin, and began marching towards the exit, ready for anything that could be on the other side, even if it was the Rain Woman standing at the ready to snatch off his towel while Black Steel prepped a camera–

What was that? 

On the bench, between a wall of lockers, sat two bundles, one more sizable than the other. A quick survey revealed the ugliest jumpsuit he'd ever laid his eyes on, and a pair of slide-on slippers, also egregiously ugly. 

Gray took a moment to consider. Was he above stealing someone else's clothes?

On the one hand, no .

But on the other hand, the only thing worse than standing around naked while being ogled by Phantom Lord mages, was probably being jumped by a naked Phantom mage.

He needed to consider this seriously.

… 

At least if they were naked, he would know exactly where to kick…

Mind thoroughly made up, he shook out the larger pile, then squinted, then sighed.

A note was pinned on top, with sparkling bright blue script reading, ' Captive-san.'

Well, these could be for anyone, from anyone. 

Turns out, he'd been worried for nothing. Leave it to the Rain Woman to see a perfect opportunity to cut him down to size, then ignore it.

But then again, this was the woman who thought she could talk bankers into looking into their hearts and shaking their fingers at that naughty temptress called Greed.

He was still laughing to himself as he stepped into the clothes. It was tight in the shoulders, chest, and arms, but the garish green and red fabric felt breathable, so he was willing to ignore that slight discomfort. Getting over the boldly printed Phantom Lord splashed down his leg, their emblem prominently resting on his torso with a glittery Christmas hat above it, was a bit more difficult, but he was still in such good spirits, he managed. 

It was only when he was toweling off the last few drops of water from his hair, sliding into the slippers with Jose's ugly little face winking up at him as he shuffled towards the exit, did he begin wondering when she'd even dropped them off. 

Now that he thought back to it, he hadn't brought a towel in with him, either… 

Which meant… somewhere amongst all that singing… and dancing… and celebrity impersonations … 

She'd walked into the locker room. 

Just when he thought he couldn't be humiliated anymore… 

This was worse than being filmed naked. 

xGx

The sound of voices started bouncing down the hall, echoing off the empty stone in a way that was almost incomprehensible. One of them was significantly deeper than the other, making it difficult for Gray to eavesdrop, but more importantly, he and Juvia had come down here alone.

While it was entirely possible someone else had followed them down here, for some reason, Gray was more inclined to believe she was just pacing back and forth, talking to herself – it's not like the girl was incapable of a teaspoon of crazy. The only thing that was throwing him, really, was how different the vocal tones were.

Was she occupying her free time by character-acting to herself as a form of entertainment?

Or worse, pseudo-friendship ? 

He was so busy trying to figure out what weird thing he was gonna come face-to-face with this time, he'd stopped listening to what was going on around him, which was why when he did finally pull himself out of his head, it was with a real jolt and he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the newcomer waiting for him beside Juvia, "Why's it always you? " He groaned. 

For Black Steel's part, he barely acknowledged Gray's reappearance, choosing instead to subtly jerk his head in the ice mage's direction, while continuing whatever conversation they'd been having in his absence.

On the bright side, at least he now knew the Rain Woman wasn't the type to talk to herself using different voices.

"I just ain't comfortable," he complained, fidgeting with the belt loops around his waist to pull the fabric further down, to-and-fro, from his skin. 

"Juvia did warn you not to get those piercings down there, but of course, you didn't wa–"

"That ain't what I'm going on about!" Black Steel cried at the same time Gray choked on his own breath, "I just meant these clothes Jose's got us schlepping around in, looks like we're part of a goddamn team sport, or somethin'!" 

Gray didn't quite agree with him there, because while the ice mage was sporting the Christmas collection, Black Steel appeared to have accidentally tripped and fallen in vate of Easter paint. 

Pale yellow, bubblegum pink, robin's egg blue, he had on all the classics. There were even little baby chicks stitched into his shirt, who appeared to be dancing and chirping along to music only they could hear.

It could not have been more at odds with how Black Steel presented himself to the world; Gray could understand the red staining his ears. 

"Well, we haven't many options to choose from at the moment," The Rain Woman sighed, motioning Gray to move by them, before they all began to walk, "Between Aria waking in a blind panic and accidentally destroying the washing machines–"

" Fucking idiot ," Black Steel seethed, "Sol's cheese collection has been stinking up the place for three whole months. They were right there, the excuse was perfect. And the dumb bastard missed." 

The bluenette picked up where she left off, seemingly unbothered by the interruption, 

"And Master Jose-sama's penchant for utter cleanliness–"

"Remind me to ship him off to therapy this Christmas…"

"–we really had no choice but to use the merchandise back stocked from last year. If anything, it's a good thing gift shop sales took such a sharp dip recently, otherwise we'd be left making some rather uncomfortable decisions. At least this way the leftovers have some use, help us get over the hump we're in until we can stop somewhere."

"I get the logic, I just hate the look."

"It's not so bad," she giggled, "you look sweet ."

The sound doubled in volume when Black Steel growled at her, gnashing his teeth audibly.

"Did Captive-san enjoy his shower?" She asked brightly, good mood seeming to trickle over to him.

She was so enthusiastic about a question literally no one Gray knew outside of this hall would really care about, he found himself smiling slightly in return, "Yeah, it was great. And might I add the addition of ginger to that charcoal shampoo really enveloped my senses. It's not really something I would have chosen for myself, and yet, I think I'm hooked. The scent is so layered and complex, I mean, I smell amazing."

"Yes, you smell so good Juvia could–" 

"Bag." Black Steel grunted suddenly, cutting her off. 

A pout came crashing over her features at once, "Gajeel-kun, that is so unnecessary and frankly impolite –!"

"Listen here, I'm just the messenger, and lemme tell you somethin' Puddle; it ain't a job I relish . I could be doing a million other things right now."

"Yeah, I think we all heard about that new shipment of kittens in need of a good kick, Juvia." Gray cut in snarkily. It was rude to carry on a conversation between two, when there were clearly three people present. "Why would you separate the man from his calling?"

Suddenly his world went dark.

For a solid second, Gray was so startled by the abrupt change he panicked, bucking to try and dislodge whatever had taken his sight for the fifth time since he'd entered Phantom Lord's stronghold, only for the scratchy feel of burlap against his freshly washed face to halt his reaction. 

He had heard them say bag, but he'd had no clue they were talking about him. 

He turned slightly, in what he hoped was the dark-haired brute's direction, and bit out, " Childish to the end." 

Gray was intuitive enough to know there was malice in the way the drawstring was tightened around his neck, and therefore, it could only be the work of Black Steel.

Juvia's tsk! of disapproval only reconfirmed it. 

Rather than pretend there was anything besides animosity between them, a sharp jab at his back prompted Gray to move forward, stumbling his way along.

Being blind had many downsides. Being blind while walking down an unfamiliar path, maybe doubly so. But instead of understanding Gray's hesitation and caution, Black Steel seemed to take the ice mage's unhurried pace as a sign of stubbornness, and did what he did best to try to rectify his rebellion.

He got physical.

Grabbing up his arm, Black Steel took it upon himself to guide Gray directly into every pole, every tight corner, every rough patch of concrete he could possibly stub his toe on, all the while chatting up the Rain Woman, as if they were enjoying a lovely little stroll in the park.

Gray knew, he knew , the oaf had to be doing it on purpose, because he'd walked down these halls himself less than an hour ago, and while he couldn't say he knew them like the back of his hand, his memory was solid enough to remember these corridors were mostly empty. The occasional stack of chairs, the odd pile of tarp here or there, was no excuse for why Gray's shoulder has been bumped into three times now.

It was only when he almost went tumbling face-down that the ice mage's good sense abandoned him and he heaved himself out of Black Steel's grip, ripping off the burlap sack as he rounded on the pair of them. 

" Look ," He shouted, happy to have their undivided attention as they stared at him, dumbfounded, "This place? I know you're super proud of it, or whatever. Your sense of patriotism is enviable to all the weirdos who care about that sort of thing, but real talk, this place is basically a dimly lit maze of the exact same thing, over and over. And credit to you for being able to differentiate Beige Hall #8 from Beige Hall #12, but I wasn't built with that particular set of skills, so this whole triple-checking whether or not I remember the layout of your oversized guild dungeon – which, by the way, only has a handful of cells, so you're kinda misrepresenting yourselves with that little moniker, but whatever – this whole game of trying to confuse my senses is pointless, and quite frankly, very painful . So I'll thank you to just maybe let that little rule slide, just this once, and allow me to walk down the hall like a fucking human being. It'll be easier on you, and it'll be a hell of a lot easier on me and my poor body. What do you say?"

They didn't say anything.

He was mostly speaking to the Rain Woman, hoping to appeal to her humanity, after all she was rather vocal from the start that she disapproved of Black Steel's idea of security measures, and yet she stood there, completely mute.

He didn't understand why she was so hesitant to give her opinion on this, after all, this was hardly the first time she'd seen him rant.

Gray looked from her to Black Steel and back again until finally she spoke. 

"Why…" Juvia mumbled blankly, eyes like saucers, "have you removed your pants?"

Gray looked down quickly to find that indeed, his 64-bits were getting a nice little air bath, right in front of his enemies.

They all stood there, staring, while Gray's mind went blank, frozen with embarrassment. 

There was no good way to explain to these people that ten years ago his parents had been murdered by a demon from the Book of Zeref, and in doing so, left him in the care of the first adult who found him, which unfortunately ended up being a woman who thought nudity was life's best ice magic tutor, which in turn , left him with a chronic mental illness that caused him to break free of his clothing the moment he felt even mildly uncomfortable or provoked.

That explanation always led to more questions, if the recipient was even willing to listen long enough to get to the Q&A portion of his tragic backstory. 

And for some reason, Gray got the inkling these people would not. 

By the time he looked up, Black Steel had a firm hand over the Rain Woman's eyes, her skin pink where it was exposed under his grip.

Gray would have almost let his humiliation go at the absurdity that was right in front of him – kidnapping, torture, and murder were A-Ok , but exposed flesh was where these bozos drew the line!? – however, the look in the other man's eyes solidified Gray's understanding that Black Steel had no problem with murder, and that was a bit more pressing at the moment. 

And, in case it was still a mystery to anyone, he then helpfully roared, " I'm gonna kill him! "

Just as fast as Gajeel must have rushed to protect the virtue of her eyes, the Rain Woman, in turn, grabbed the very arm that was keeping her worldview censored, and latched onto it like her life depended on it.

Which Gray appreciated, because his life did. 

It was a bit like watching a mouse hold back a bull, but by Mavis , the bluenette somehow managed.

She dragged him, still blindfolded, back where they'd come from, down the hall and around the corner until they were well out of sight.

The larger man went kicking and screaming, his threats becoming uncomfortably creative before he disappeared, shouting all the way.

But Gray took note of something else entirely, that derailed his thoughts. 

At no point did he believe Black Steel would raise a hand against Gray if it meant accidentally lashing out on the bluenette firmly attached to him.

He could have thrown her off – he assumed , Gray hadn't yet gotten a full scope of what he was capable of magically besides a few quick, sporadic, and frankly blurry, rounds he'd witnessed when Fairy Tail had stormed their guild last week – but he remembered quite clearly how the bigger man had recklessly thrown his guildmates into anyone he saw as an enemy that day, enraging Natsu and Elfman alike at how little he cared for those who fought by his side.

And yet… 

He seemed to treat her differently.

Not gentle – Gray didn't believe he was fully capable of that at the moment – but definitely gentle's more scrappy and unruly cousin.

It was rough around the edges, but he could clearly see that under the brutality he wore like a badge of honor, was someone who lost his fucking mind because his guildmate had caught sight of a stranger's wee-wee, unprovoked. 

And now that he'd seen this, Gray realized he'd been way off in his assessment earlier that there was something romantic blossoming between the two of them.

They weren't flirting, just like she'd said, they were bickering and genuinely riffing off each other just as he would do back home. 

He'd brushed it off as naivety on her part, but Juvia was right; the fierce protectiveness the ice mage had just witnessed didn't appear to be that of a man ready to throw hands in a jealous rage, it was… 

It was more like… 

…an older brother fending off a freak in a trench coat from his wide-eyed little sister.

He didn't entirely understand why this was such an important distinction for him to make, maybe he hadn't really thought of Phantom Lord as a place where such complex bonds could be formed, but that didn't explain his apparent obsession to try and puzzle everything out. 

Gray was still scrambling together what his observations meant, if anything, when the bluenette reemerged from around the corner. 

" Why have you not re-clothed yourself? " She cried, both visibly exasperated and shaken, when she clapped her own hand over her eyes. 

Not even a moment later, a very furious, now familiar, voice screamed, " That bastard's still naked!? "

"Gajeel-kun, he–"

"No!" His voice was odd, warbling and echoing weird, like he was struggling or something, "I'm gonna rip off that perv's dick and shove it so far up his own ass he's gonna have to whistle through his nose to take a piss!"

Where did he come up with these things…?

"Uh, sorry! I was kinda caught up–!" He couldn't really explain what had occupied his thoughts while they were away so Gray had the good sense then to finally turn around and seek out the jumpsuit on the dimly lit floor. 

He felt pretty self conscious, which was odd, because he knew for a fact they'd both gotten an eyeful of his frontal and neither party seemed interested, yet for some reason he couldn't shake the feeling someone was ogling his backside… 

Once everything was securely covered and laced up – it was tight in the arm and shoulders anyway, so he opted to simply tie that part more securely around his waist, even though that meant going shirtless – he turned back towards his remaining captor sheepishly, to find her covered face now turned up to the ceiling, as if she really needed to redouble her efforts just to make sure she didn't happen upon even a peek. 

Not to be sensitive, but they were being kinda dramatic, it's not like he was hideous .

"Alright." He huffed. 

The Rain Woman allowed a small gap in her fingers, just enough for her to get a quick peek at whether he was telling the truth, before she released a sigh and dropped her makeshift blindfold. 

"Captive-san…"  She looked deeply uncomfortable as she surveyed him, as if looking for the exact part of his DNA that made him such a freak, "Are these the wanton ways Jose-sama spoke of?"

Probably. "No!" He answered instead.

Her expression was still troubled so he lied through his teeth and muttered, "That was a fluke. It's never happened before, it'll never happen again. I probably just buttoned something the wrong way…"

It was fine if he fibbed, once all this was over, it's not like he'd ever have to see her again. 

"Juvia is certain she saw you remove your clothes voluntar–"

"Well, Juvia is mistaken!"

Not one square inch of her face looked reassured by his outbursts, but as she had no tangible evidence to dispute his claim, she eventually dropped her eyes and nodded. "Very well…"

She motioned him towards her, and they went back the way they'd come, Gray could only assume to get Black Steel from wherever the drama queen had hidden himself.

Y'know that guy was gonna be in for quite the culture shock once he started traveling outside their continent. There were whole nations where Gray's little habit was the norm, did he plan on wearing a blindfold over there, too? 

Rounding the corner, the ice mage stopped short at what he saw.

There, floating above the ground like some kind of sick human aquarium, was Black Steel, his arms crossed while he glared down at the Rain Woman.

"Don't be cocky, ya took me by surprise, is all."

Gray couldn't see her face and she didn't say anything, but her reaction was somehow enough to get the other boy seething, "There ain't no glory in a back-handed attack!" He barked, voice warbling oddly. 

This was like outer space calling an oil slick, black… 

But still, she didn't say anything, instead she waved her wrist a bit, and a magic circle appeared, swallowing up the water from above, like a drain pulled from a bathtub.

Black Steel landed solidly on his feet, like this was nothing out of the ordinary, being in a bubble and all, before he set his eyes on Gray.

They narrowed sharply. 

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Black Steel seethed, shaking water from his wild mane absently, "but isn't he still more naked than before?"

Juvia spared him quick glance, but shrugged, unconcerned, "That set isn't tailored, Gajeel-kun, if he's uncomfortable–"

"I don't give a fuck about his discomfort," Black Steel roared, before he turned and jabbed a finger at Gray, "Fix the fucking sleeves right!" 

Juvia stepped between them, "You're making a bigger deal of this than is really called for–"

"I'm making the right amount–" 

"Gajeel-kun, he's a guest."

"He's a prisoner!" 

"This is just the smallest little adjustment, he's still going back to his cell–"

"And he's gonna do it wrapped like a fucking mummy. If I see a single fucking ear exposed I'm ripping it o–!"

Gray heaved a big sigh, effectively cutting him off, expression despondent, "I know, I'm sorry. You were hoping for that big reveal on our wedding night, but I've gone and spoiled my own virtue. Does this mean you're calling off the ceremony? My parents needed that dowry, you knew this when you proposed! Can't you do me a favor, and just pretend to be surprised?"

All he'd wanted to do was diffuse the tension a bit, and while that worked fairly well on the Rain Woman, who seemed to be left fighting off a smile, he'd only managed to stoke the ire of his actual target. 

That crazed look had returned to Black Steel's face, now accessorized with a dangerously prominent vein pulsing out just above his studded brow, "You want me to do you a favor?" He hissed, closer now to Gray than even the Rain Woman had been when she'd told him about the razor, " Sure , how 'bout this?" 

He grabbed up Gray's upper arms, giving the ice mage a feel of the power underlying his grip, and if he didn't feel concerned by that alone, Juvia's panicked whimper certainly didn't rally his confidence. 

"How about I skewer you on our flagpole, right up on the roof, so ya can wave to all yer little friends when we finally cross paths again? You could be Phantom's personal flesh puppet, first of it's kind!"

Black Steel could be out there , teaching classes to budding writers worldwide, inspiring the best-selling author of tomorrow, and instead he'd chosen a life of villainy.

If the ice mage's life wasn't so acutely in danger, he'd have wept.

"That's very sweet of you to consider me for such an honor, but you see, I get cold easi–"

It was dark again. 

"Gajeel-kun, please, it's so undignified –!"

"That's kinda the point, Puddle."

"But we agre –"

" You rambled and I didn't feel like arguing," Black Steel clarified, "but clearly he ain't the responsible sort, dropping his pants like a hankie or somethin'."

" But Gaj –!" 

"So here's our choices," He cut in, heaving Gray up and – mortifyingly – over, until the ice mage's stomach landed squarely on his shoulder, "either I carry him back, or we chance it with him walking and if I come face-to-face with ice boy's popsicle stick again, I get to gut him like a fish. From there, it's up to you whether you wanna mourn the bits that's left over, or not." He shrugged, jostling the ice mage as he did. 

"There is a third option, y'know," Gray piped up, feeling deeply humiliated on a level he hadn't been aware could feel that way, "you could just go on about your day and leave me alone with her– G AH–AHHRRGG! "

Black Steel had dropped him so suddenly, Gray had no way of knowing it was coming before he hit the ground, landing on his back, the air leaving his lungs in an incredibly painful thump! that left him choking and coughing .

Before he even had the chance to try and roll over, forcing some air into himself, he was pinned into place by something heavy, the pressure on his chest even worse for his breathing than the drop had been, leaving him struggling for any form of escape. 

But just as soon as the weight appeared, it was gone, and while he was in far too much pain to feel any relief, it did help a bit that something wasn't actively trying to crush his ribcage.

There were odd sounds, sounds he couldn't place, sounds that didn't make any sense contextually, and Gray worked to focus on that, trying to keep his mind on something other than his pain.

Soon, the hall went silent, then he heard a panicked, " Hm! " A sound he had become all too familiar with over the last couple of days here. So much so, that he knew the Rain Woman must have remembered or realized something that made her uneasy.

When warm hands touched his chest briefly, before going for his neck and releasing the bag, he realized he was the thing she was worried about.

She held his face for a moment, scanned him for anything she might have deemed amiss, then released a breath, before pulling him up into a sitting position.

Gray wasn't so out of it anymore. He was actually a bit surprised at his own recovery as his breathing regulated and his pain subsided quickly. Still, he took the arm she offered, grateful she was willing to hold up the bulk of his weight while she guided him back to his feet. 

Gray looked around, searching for Black Steel, while simultaneously hoping he might have heeded the ice mage's advice and left, but no. He was still there in the hall with them.

Black Steel swiped at his mouth, collecting droplets of red on the back of his hand, before wiping it quickly on the pile of tarp he'd landed on, arms crossed while he glared at the back of the Rain Woman's head.

Did she…?

"We'll compromise ," Juvia said calmly, as though she wanted to emphasize that she was currently the most level-headed person here – despite arguably just displaying the most violence among them – and that they should aspire to reach her. She stepped up to her guild mate, "Here, Gajeel-kun, raise your arms up so Juv–"

Black Steel skipped away from her in one swift move until he was damn near down the hall, "If your bright idea is to have us all struttin' around in our birthday suits to make Pretty Boy feel more at home or somethin', you've got cotton between your ears!" He shouted. 

"No," Juvia tsked, tugging him back in place beside them, "She's simply going to feed two chipmunks with one seed." 

It took Gray a minute to understand what she meant, "You mean ' kill two birds with one stone '?"

"Oh, Juvia doesn't like that expression," the bluenette informed him, shuddering subtly as she sidled up behind Black Steel's shoulder, "she's actually quite fond of birds. All animals really."

Then she grabbed a fistful of the other man's sleeve and tugged, ripping it away at the seams.

"A blindfold," she answered before they could request an explanation. "That way we can guide Captive-san, and he won't see anything. It also has the added benefit of modifying your clothing into something more aligning with your aesthetic, Gajeel-kun." She patted his shoulder, before stepping around him towards Gray. "See? Two chipmunks, one seed," She beamed.

He didn't feel like arguing about the legitimacy of that expression, instead he took a small step back of his own, weary, "Hey, uh, y'know he's been wearing that all day, maybe we should take a moment, review it for any kinda smells–" 

"Yeah, check that out, Puddle. Gotta be sure it don't interfere with that pervy musk he doused himself in before." Black Steel grumbled audibly. 

Gray rounded on him immediately, "Hate to correct you, but I'm not a pervert! Nudity is not inherently sexual, y'know!"

Gajeel's temper rose just as fast, "And if I rammed my fist into your face, I guess that wouldn't inherently break yer fucking nose?"

"Of course it would! You've been trying to hurt me since we met!"

"And ya've been giving me some damn good reasons to want to since then, too!"

"It's just a misunderstanding!"

"The misunderstanding happened when yer mother found out she was pregnant and thought it was a good idea to bring yer ugly ass into this world!"

" Ugly?!" Gray raged, almost ready to take on Black Steel there and then, even if it meant needing to be wheeled back to his cell, later. "You've got a three-mile long rat's nest sprouting from your skull and your eyebrows were bought from a discount hardware store, who the fuck are you calli–?"

Almost comically, Black Steel's expression shifted then, from outrage to undiluted disappointment, in the span of a second. "Of all the things I've said to you so far, yer really ready to throw hands now, over ya looks ?" 

"I'm not gonna stand here and let you fling around inaccuracies!" 

What if a blind person had wandered down here unknowingly, overheard their arguments, and assumed the worst? He couldn't just take that lying down. 

"What if I flung you into the wall, instead?"

" Fucking do it! " Gray hollered, moving to throw off his shirt, before he remembered where the sleeves were tied, around his waist, "I'm sick of all your empty threats, Black Steel. Just because I was on the mend this whole time, doesn't mean I'm weak. If you wanna go head-to-head, for once , I'm not backing down!"

For the first time in what felt like years – but was actually only a few days –  a cool breeze tickled at his palms, startling him. It was such a shock – he'd only intended to fistfight the other man, not knowing he'd healed enough to tap into his magic – Gray let out a real chuckle of surprise, before thinking better of it, and straightening his face, his fist closing around the cold quickly. 

His heart started thumping erratically, sweat pooling under his arms, while his mind raced. 

He couldn't let them know.

Aside from the fact he knew he'd need the element of surprise to attack these two and escape, now wasn't a good time.

Yes, he'd felt something , but it was a rather hollow gasp compared to the roar of power he knew he was capable of.

But he was getting there.

It was just a matter of how long it would take to return to full strength. 

"Done!"

Once again the ice mage startled out of thoughts, shocked to see Gajeel still so close, as well as the Rain Woman holding what looked like a crafts project. 

"It's all clean now," she beamed, holding it up for the ice mage's inspection, the pair of them ignoring the irritated scoff coming from the man behind her, as he tore the other arm from his shirt, "See! Now we can all head back! Happy?" 

"I don't know about happy , I'm still a prisoner… "

"His legs don't look broke to me, so…"

"Well, as happy as we can manage for now." 

The Rain Woman twirled her finger then, implying he should turn around. When he did, she placed the bit of cloth before his eyes to secure it around his head, gently sliding her fingers under the cloth to untuck his ears, before fastening the ends in a swift knot. 

Gray took a second to not only shake off whatever sensation happened in his stomach while she'd done it, but also to check how comfortable he was with this next stint in sightlessness. 

It wasn't great, but it was better than that sack. 

No sooner had he come to that conclusion, then he felt one her hands on the small of his back while the other kept a hold of his elbow, propelling him forward, so they could all start walking again.

xGx 

Gray wasn't entirely sure how the trio had managed to move past their multiple little scuffles, but they did.

With Juvia guiding him carefully by the wrist, she continued the conversation she'd been having with the iron dragon slayer before.

"–and I'm telling you, I came face-to-face with that pyro," Black Steel argued, clearly frustrated with the topic, "Blondie and the little blue cat were calling him something to do with summer–"

"Yes!" Juvia squealed excitedly.

"–but he answered to Salamander just fine ."

"That would be Dame Salamander to you then, Gajeel-kun. He's been knighted ."

Gray was blindfolded, but he knew without seeing, Black Steel was looking at her like she was speaking with numbers.

Then something seemed to occur to her, "Wait, the cat could talk?"

"Yeah!" Black Steel replied quickly, his pitch rising to convey genuine shock, "I couldn't believe it either, I had plans to snatch him up after the fight, but with Jose cutting in and all that, I never got the chance."

"That's unfortunate," she tsked, "Perhaps you'll have time when we next run into them, Juvia could help if you'd l–"

" Do you people have no other hobbies besides kidnapping!? " Gray cried, stunned they could admit to, and scheme about, something like that so casually. "For the love of Mavis, we live on a planet with rollercoasters, karaoke, a-a-and candle-making , and instead you choose to do what? Yank people off the street? For the safety of everyone else in Earthland, please, broaden your horizons! "

Gray's chest was rising and falling almost too quickly to regain all the breath he used up for that little rant, before Black Steel grunted out, "A cat ain't a person."

Nothing could have set him off faster than that response. 

Gray was fully prepared to turn around and try for round three, but, whether she knew it or not, the Rain Woman put a stop to it. 

"We're here!" She cheered, mood no more dampened by their conversation than glass under a sunny sky.

Like a good little captive, Gray waited until he crossed the threshold of his cell to yank off his blindfold and glare at Black Steel, but by then he'd already started stomping away.

The bluenette called after him, as if he were someone anyone would ever miss, "Gajeel-kun, where are you going?"

"Pizza party." 

"Pizz–?" Juvia gave the clock a quick glance before shouting back, "At this time? Jose-sama never said anything ab–"

"Maybe ya just weren't invited!" He barked back, before a door slammed behind him, effectively ending their little spat. 

His eyes may have been playing tricks on him, but he thought she looked a little hurt.

Tucking her chin in slightly, she refocused on Gray, "Here," The Rain Woman stepped into the cell, guiding him down onto the cot as if he were something delicate, "The medical kit is just beside you, please see to you wrappings."

She had almost crossed the threshold, expression still cloudy, when he called after her, "Hey, you're really gonna make me do this myself?"

What was he doing?

If she wanted to respect his space, for once , he should have been thrilled and let her do it, instead he'd grabbed onto her sleeve and was hanging on like it was a lifeline.

She blinked back owlishly, "Captive-san has not responded to Juvia's interference well in the past, she thought she'd spare the both of us any hard feelings this time."

"Yeah, well…" He racked his brain for a good excuse, eyes darting anywhere but at her face, "In the last hour I face-planted concrete once, smacked the back of my head on top of it; I'm still too dizzy to mess with all these wrappings and salve," He jiggled the emergency kit towards her, feigning impatience, "I need you to at least pull the bandages taunt and make sure everything lines up right, unless that's too much–"

"Oh, no!" Her dark blue eyes practically sparkled, and Gray felt that thing in his stomach again, "Juvia would be happy to help. Would you like her to give you a quick physical, she can relay your health–"

"Do whatever, I don't care." Gray sniffed, voice thick with care.

Rather than make her way down fluidly and full of grace, as she had been for the last week or so, she plopped on the floor just before him, rather unceremoniously. 

"You'll have to excuse Juvia, but all that up and down," She moved her hand through the air to show what she meant, "was doing a number on Juvia's knees…"

"I was wondering…"

With a wave of her wrist, a small trail of water lashed out and grabbed a candlestick from the nearest sconce. It placed itself between them, while the bluenette snapped on a single black glove she'd fished out from the first aid.

"She will be quick, no need to worry."

Gray wasn't; he leaned back so she could get a better angle within the candle's scope of light, watching her face as she peered over his body.

She worked intentionally, with a surprising sense of professionalism that he wouldn't have expected given the Pill-Hosing Incident of day one. Besides the heat of the candle being mildly uncomfortable when it got too close to his skin, he felt relaxed. So much so, his eyes slid shut without his being aware, until she let out a yelp of surprise. 

"Eh, Captive-san!" 

"What?"

She slapped his arm. 

"What? " He let his guard down for thirty goddamn seconds and she chose viol–!

"Look at your wound, why… It's almost completely healed!" She beamed. 

Oh. Right. He knew this.

But for some reason he didn't let on that he did, choosing instead to stay silent, while she continued her inspection.

"Why just the other day, it looked… Juvia was afraid to voice what it looked like, and now.. ." She looked up at him excitedly, informing him with quiet reverence, "You have a most enviable healing factor, Captive-san."

Oddly enough, he preened at her compliment, as if he had anything to do with the speed of his own recovery. " Thank you." 

"Oh this is wonderful ," she gasped, poking here and there along his chest, "Why, Captive-san doesn't even need the bandages really. Just a bit more salve and Juvia suspects as early as this afternoon we can remove those stitches."

"You don't say?" He tilted his head with faux surprise. 

"Yes!"

After she finished applying the ointment, Juvia stood, snapping the glove off as she left the cell, "We will give it one more full day," She declared, "Tomorrow morning, the stitches will come out. Oh, Juvia must remember where we keep that other medical kit, it will have all the too–"

"Hey."

Gray was sitting up now, one brow raised, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Hm?" She looked lost for a second, then blinked with some sort of realization, "Oh yes, the candle!" She gasped, hurrying back to his side to pluck it off the floor, before replacing it in it's sconce with a little pat on the wall, "Fire hazards are no laughing matter, thank you for reminding Juvia, Captiv–"

" No ."

She was sitting in her chair, head tilted in curiosity, not seeming to catch on to his meaning, despite how obvious he thought it was.

Mother of Mavis, she had close to a week of prison guard experience under her belt, and yet after a couple hours away… 

"You forgot to close the door." Gray deadpanned, gesturing to the open space in front of him, that could allow him to waltz out, at any moment.

Why, if he wasn't an upstanding citizen…! 

"Oh," Juvia breathed, expression less than concerned. "Yes. That."

Gray's eyes narrowed, instantly suspicious.

After nearly a week together, the ice mage had learned to recognize quite a few of the Rain Woman's quirks.

Without fail, she always referred to herself in the third person. When angry or provoked her speech became more formal, as if to emotionally distance herself from whatever was bothering her. She had a difficult time maintaining eye contact; the only time the Rain Woman managed it was when she sought out the truth in another's words. And…

And when she was uncomfortable, her hand loved to drift towards that little doll sitting just under her chin.

At the moment, her hands were fiddling with it so roughly, it looked like it was going through a violent seizure.

Gray stared her down.

"Oi, Juvia."

"Yes?"

He sucked his teeth impatiently, "I'm gonna go ahead and escape now."

"You are welcome to try," she mumbled.

Rather than risk hurting himself, Gray slid off the cot, and shoved his hands in front of himself, purposely, eyes still trained on the bluenette. Just as he expected, his palms were met with invisible resistance.

Then, bright, purple lettering, unintelligible to Gray, streamed in front of his eyes before they translated themselves into clear, unmistakable Fiorian:

The one referred to as Captive-san shall not step through these runes without express verbal permission.

A rune wall.  

"Why the change?"  He asked quietly, dread beginning to surface. 

"Because." She replied simply.

"Because what ?"

She leveled him with a look, as if to say, you won't feel better if Juvia voices your suspicions out loud. But he didn't relent, so she sighed and muttered, "Because soon those bars won't be enough to contain you. Captive-san's magic is coming back."

Shit. "How do you know?"

"When she came to wake you earlier, a fog was visible with your every exhale, that's why she created the rune wall initially," Her expression only became more grave, as if she were confessing to witnessing a terrible crime committed by a dear friend, "And on our way back from the showers, just to be sure, Juvia felt your chest, even right after that hot shower, you were cold."

That's right. He had even noted it, that her hands felt warm; every other time they'd touched before, she had been cool to him. Not only that, she'd guided him back to the cell personally . He'd thought she was just trying to keep him out of Black Steel's violent grasp, but she must have been checking, making sure it wasn't just a fluke.

Three chipmunks, one seed.  

It bothered him that he'd let such an important moment slip past his notice. It was almost like watching his element of surprise walk out the door with it's bags packed.

He released a huff, running an irritated hand through his slightly damp hair. Gray eyed the wall of runes, tongue bitter with distaste, "Tell me something else." 

"Hm?"

"So you knew I was out of magic?"

"Yes."

"This entire time?"

"Yes."

Gray was silent, trying to contain the outrage he could already feel, beginning to well up inside, "Did you have anything to do with my magic disappearing?" He asked quietly, too calmly.

"...Yes." 

He was up in seconds, "Juvia!" He roared, slamming a hand on the transparent wall between them; he could have been home! He could have–

Her tone was too calm, "It was a side effect of the medicine Juvia gave you."

"In the ice cream sandwich!" He knew it, he knew she'd drugged him–!

But she shook her head, "No, Juvia has only given you medicine once, on that first night. You responded poorly to being given anything without your knowledge, and you've been awake since then, so there was no need to covertly slip something in your food. The medicine is strong enough that a talented wizard would really only need to have it administered once."

He ignored her compliment, "Did you know beforehand that it was gonna block my magic?"

"Yes."

"And you didn't say anything?" 

She sighed heavily, but her expression was the picture of patience, "Would you have taken the pill otherwise?"

"No," Gray replied honestly, certain he was in the right, "but I wouldn't need it. I coulda busted out of here–"

"And collapsed in a puddle of your own blood on this side of your cell, your corpse full to bursting with magic power and nothing else."

He was starting to understand why this girl hadn't been invited to the pizza party upstairs.

"That wasn't your call to make!"

Her face was full of consideration before she nodded, "You're right. But Juvia understood that Captive-san was not in the right mind to make it either, at the time you were a mess of injuries and after that, anger and injustice were driving your decisions. If she'd told you, you may have vomited it up just to stoke Juvia's ire, you were more than willing to starve yourself out of pure spite, hurting yourself was not out of the question. Juvia only wanted to help you live long enough to fight another day." 

Gray collapsed on the cot behind himself haphazardly, trusting it to catch him while he stared the bluenette down.

She confused him, really she did. Juvia'd make bold declarations like that, swearing she was only looking out for him, but at the same time… 

"Did you forget you're the reason I'm here, or..?"

Her answer was just a breath, yet he heard her just fine. "Of course not…"

Silence reigned between them, before Gray let out another huff, grabbing up her book though he was in no real mood to read. 

He heard her swallow audibly, could feel her eyes as she continued to watch him, "Are you angry?" 

His answer was swift and stern, "Yes."

"So angry you would no longer like to speak with Juvia?"

… 

No. He wasn't that angry. And that pissed off so much he stayed quiet too long to answer before she spoke up again.

"It's late, but perhaps Captive-san would like a midnight snack, someth–"

Like the traitor it was, his stomach growled loudly, courting her kindness even while his mind begged him to give her the cold shoulder. 

"Very well!" She perked up considerably, latching onto this opportunity like a lifeline, as she clapped her hands under her chin, "Juvia can make something you'll really like. How about sweet potato noodle stir fry? Or an egg and shrimp sandwich on brioche? Or if you want something really quick, Juvia can whip up some chazuke. There should be left-over rice and there's always green tea and seaweed laying around, it would only take a moment for Juvia to make the salmon, and it's light, which means it'll easy to digest–"

"All of it."

She blinked, and he was sure she thought she'd misheard him, "Eh?"

"I said, all of it."

"But…?" 

"I didn't want to say anything, because I'm not a tattletale in general," He inhaled dramatically, drawing out the moment so she could experience some suspense, " but Sue let me starve yesterday !"

"What?" 

"Then Broken Glas– Boze rolled around and tried to feed me pig slop."

She looked horrified , lips parted in unfettered shock.

Gray sniffed, setting down her book, while his eyes closed theatrically, "Y'know, I'm a growing boy–" 

"You are !"

"–and as such, I require sustenance every now and then and again, but for whatever reason, everyone refused to give it to me yesterday."

He didn't make his voice break for effect, it did that on its own.

" Oh , Juvia had no idea! Yes, of course, stir fry, and sandwiches, and chazuke, an-an-and anything else she finds!" She hurried to stand, "Would you like some dessert?'

"I don't know…  it is kinda late ." 

"Oh yes, of course." She turned to leave. 

"Unless!"

She stopped.

"You happened to come across any ice cream, then I suppose I could try to swallow it down."

She was already nodding. "Right away, as many as you'd like–" 

"Stop making a doormat out of yerself for that stripper, you ain't doing nothing else for that bastard tonight."

Gray huffed at the interruption by someone who was leading the pack on being his least favorite member of Phantom Lord.

Not only that, but his choice of words . 

What exactly made him a bastard, hmm? He hadn't eaten in 17 hours, and it's not like he was demanding she go fetch it for him, more like they were demanding he sit on his ass. He would happily get up and get it himself! 

But that wasn't possible, was it? 

"Gajeel-kun!" She cheered, whipping her head towards the hall, well out of Gray's line of sight, "How was the pizza party?"

"What? Ther– Juvia there was n–"

Black Steel inhaled deeply, expressing an emotion Gray had become all too familiar with while dealing with the Rain Woman.

The grunt decided to change tactics, "Prop this open for me, will ya?"

"Oh, yes, of course."

Not too long after she'd scurried away, Juvia made a sound that expressed no small amount of alarm, though as whatever was startling her was still outside his line of vision, Gray had no way of knowing if she was right to be concerned.

Loud, harsh scraping sounded, grating on his ears, before the object finally came into his sight.

It was a bed frame.

Made entirely out of metal, with little pictures scraped into the sides depicting rabbits, rainbows, rain clouds, butterflies, and little flower bunches, it was far more intricate and purposely designed than Gray's cot. 

It fit in the hall snuggly, nearly flush with the rune wall, the light from the sconces reflecting off the slats, while Black Steel unraveled a large bundle that turned out to be a mattress. 

He was sliding it into frame when he barked out, "Shower, change, sleep."

The bluenette sighed, surprising Gray, "Thank you for your concern, b–" 

"In that order."

"You misunderstood, Juvia only needed some fresh air last night–"

His glare cut her words as effectively as any threat.

"Ya wanna babble about a sense o' duty, that you can't leave your little Stripper–"

Mavis , Gray hoped that nickname didn't catch on.

"–to sleep upstairs with the rest of 'em, so I'm giving you some of ya precious compromise; you'll take this bed and you'll damn well like it."

Her chin pushed up, but her eyes remained on the floor, "Juvia rested plenty not even two hours a–"

"Oi, I'm the one who found you," Black Steel cut in testily, "and claiming that being up there like you was, is some kind of resting spot –"

"You do it," she mumbled, bottom lip pointedly puffed out. 

" You ain't me ."

Gray couldn't make heads or tails of their exchange, though he couldn't deny it had crossed his mind a few times that he'd had yet to catch the Rain Woman resting; he'd chalked it up to her just being a very fast sleeper.

Which seemed silly in retrospect… 

"Very well, Juvia will do as you say," Her tone was reluctant and clearly put-out at the very idea, "But you must wait a moment, Captive-san is nearly at death's door–"

A wee bit dramatic, but he appreciated her sense of urgency.

"–he needs to eat tonight, or he may not make it to morning. He was just telling Juvia about the travesties he managed to survive–!"

"And did that naked bastard tell ya about the sandwiches Boze made him?"

Gray's stomach sank. He laid back, defeat already accepted, knowing he wouldn't be getting anything else til morning. 

"He said he was given slop. Slop , Gajeel-kun!"

"Yeah?" He gruffed, not the least bit interested in her crocodile tears, "Didn't mention Boze made 'im about J2500 worth of grilled cheese, did he?"

Gray almost felt the moment her head whipped around to him for confirmation. Felt rather than saw, because he'd hidden his face behind her book again. 

Black Steel then tapped the cot twice, checking for what, Gray couldn't tell, before giving a satisfied nod, and rounding on the Rain Woman once more.

"Enough dawdling, hop in the shower before you catch a cold, or I'll throw ya in there myself."

A cold?

Gray gave the bluenette a curious once over, but not even a hair was out of place in her carefully coiled curls.

"If Juvia is going to le–"

"Ain't no ifs , yer going!" 

"–then she wants your word you won't lay a hand on Captive-san."

Where the ice mage would have expected another bout of his verbal tirade, Black Steel's brows settled heavy over his eyes, before he crossed his arms, tone muted, "My word ain't worth much, Puddle." 

"Still, Juvia would like to have it."

No, no. Gray couldn't disagree more. They should heed Black Steel's warning, and not leave him under the brute's supervision based on something as flimsy as a pinky promise . 

But the older boy just huffed, before muttering, "Ya got my word, I won't lay a hand on him."

" Thank y–" 

"Just get going!" 

The Rain Woman gave him a small little wave, that filled Gray with the kind of dread a small child might feel if their guardian purposely left them in the middle of a jellyfish-infested ocean, before she headed out.

The ice mage braced for whatever impact Black Steel had in store, tucked no doubt in-between his lemon yellow pants-leg and studded combat boots, but no sooner had he finished making the bed, comforter and all, did he stomp off, door slamming shut behind him. 

Gray was left alone for quite some time, and while he'd like to say he spent that time wisely, formulating grand plans of escape and revenge, he mostly just sat in place, pouting that Black Steel had come between him and a hearty midnight snack.

Juvia ended up arriving first, and she looked nothing short of unrecognizable.

The buttoned-up emotionally distant person he'd come to know, the one with grave eyes that sometimes sparkled with curiosity or delight, but usually held a quiet sense of duty, was gone. 

Replaced by a girl who alarmingly looked very close to his own age, all of a sudden.

The tightly coiled curls she'd had firmly placed on her shoulders under her towering hat, now sat at her elbows, darkened slightly with residual water from her shower. Gone was the heavy wool coat with fur cuffs, the tall brown boots, instead she wore a t-shirt many sizes too big for her, the Rain Woman fidgeted with the collar, but no matter her efforts, one of her shoulders insisted on being exposed. 

She slipped out of shoes that matched the ones Gray had had to walk back in, Jose winking so often, it could medically qualify as a twitch.

On the outside of her thigh, almost completely exposed now, he saw it. Her guild mark, a blue so dark it nearly matched her eyes, but not quite. 

The ice mage blinked twice then, reminding himself not to stare, but that suggestion went unheeded as she climbed into the bed, practically tripping over herself as she did so, and tucked herself in.

He continued to stare at her with open-mouthed shock, his emotions bouncing between bewilderment and–

Nope, just varying levels of bewilderment. 

He knew now that she could turn into water, but this kind of shape-shifting–!

It was like a completely different person. 

If she had come back as a fully-fledged dragon, Gray would have been less shocked.

Tucking some of her hair behind her ear, she dipped her chin, expression apologetic for reasons that Gray couldn't fathom.

"Please excuse Juvia's lack of professionalism–"

Oh, of course.

"–unfortunately, Juvia has also succumbed to the washing machine disaster." She tugged at the shirt, tsking slightly, "This is Aria's. He's a bit bigger–"

Gray knew from experience that man was a mountain.

"–but as everything else has already been taken, Juvia had no choice but to accept." She pulled up the blankets, arms folding over her knees while she peered at him. "Juvia was so sure she had more clothes, but when she checked… Her bag was empty. This was her only option…"

From between her fingers sat the little white ghost doll, no longer at her chin, but sitting in her lap, her gaze latched to it while it danced violently between her digits.

Not apologetic, Gray realized, her face was embarrassed , uncomfortable.

It suddenly became very clear to him that if she'd had her choice, she'd have gone as many days as possible in that same wool get-up if it meant preventing anyone from seeing her dressed so casually.

Perhaps she dressed that way as a means of protection, armor in it's most unassuming form. 

He was suddenly reminded of Erza, a girl who, in all the years he'd known her, he hadn't caught once without a breastplate.

It was her comfort, her shield. 

Gray's mouth snapped shut, his senses finally coming back to him. He laid back, tone playful, "Last I checked, you were given a full-color display of my family jewels, not even an hour ago. I think I can handle a girl in a t-shirt." He rolled his eyes for affect. 

It was the least he could do really.

Her face went a little pink at the reminder of that particular incident, but otherwise she just nodded, expression relieved. 

Soon after, Black Steel returned, ladened with a tray and a death glare pointed directly at Gray.

He wasn't entirely sure what for.

Could it be a warning sign not to partake in Juvia's cheese plate?

Did he think Gray had just noticed the Rain Woman had legs, and now thought the ice mage was plotting something cartoonishly nefarious? 

Maybe while upstairs something suddenly reminded the brute of his existence and that had soured his whole evening.

Gray could relate to that at least a little.

In any case, once he passed over the food and drink to the bluenette, he decided to take up post in her abandoned chair, arms folded, eyes shut. 

Juvia was generous enough to share, keeping a lookout for Black Steel while smuggling him some brie, grapes, and dark chocolate. Unfortunately, Gray made the mistake of chewing an apple slice too loud, which alerted their grumpy guard to their scheme, and from then on he kept his deep red eyes firmly on the food, until Juvia had eaten every bite.

A little before three, she collapsed into her pillows, all the dishes stacked away neatly, and Gray had just enough time to do the same before the lights were snuffed out. 

Chapter Text

xJx

A soft sigh was the only signal Juvia gave to announce that she had awakened and it was muffled heavily by the sounds of the boiler room further down the hall, and the joints of the guild as it rattled and clanked it way along whichever end of Fiore they were currently meandering around. 

In about ten seconds she'd be very grateful for that. 

Her eyes were slow to open while she took in the peaceful quiet, so rare at her guild, but open they did, and a moment later they were stuck that way, practically bulging out, mid-yawn, when she caught sight of the ice mage. 

Her view of him was completely unobstructed.

Thanks to the newly constructed rune-wall that was his only barrier now, instead of the bars before. That, coupled with the fact that the iron bed Gajeel had made for her was flush with the entrance to his cell; no doubt he'd built the frame with the width of the corridor in mind, concluding that even if the Fairy Tail mage managed to escape the cell, he'd have to climb in, then over , her bed to be free. 

Juvia was too light a sleeper for that work.

He probably hadn't counted on her getting a front row seat to this… 

This peep show. 

As her face grew warmer and warmer, she wasn't sure if she should be grateful for that lapse in judgment, or not. 

He was exercising. Quiet huffs and pants could be heard from him, but only when one was focused on him, as Juvia was just then. His back was bare and to her, and she watched his efforts, almost unseeing, yet somehow also mentally recording every moment to store and analyze later. 

She'd never known anyone to be so… flagrant about their own body. Anyone could come down here and see, and it's like it didn't occur to him.

Or maybe he didn't care. 

He was doing jumping jacks, every muscle and tendon in his back and arms moving in-sync as he hopped up and down. Sweat coated his skin, no doubt caused by the too warm dungeon rather than any strenuous activity on his part. As he moved, droplets would bounce off his veins and disappear from view, or else burst on impact and coat a little patch of skin. 

Though there was this one bead , stubborn as the man it was latched to, that refused to be simply shrugged off or diverted from it's intended path. Juvia watched intently as it made its way down, following the curve of his spine, past the dip in his lower back, racing towards the skin hidden by the fabric of his jumpsuit. 

Skin she'd gotten quite the view of last night when he'd suddenly discarded his pants in front of her.

It was such a vivid memory, it had haunted her dreams. She'd never in her life seen a bum so fir–!

"OI! What the fuck is wrong with ya!? "

Juvia practically leapt out of her skin. 

"How many times do I have to tell ya, damn Stripper, to keep yer fuckin' clothes on!? "

Juvia's heart was beating double-time, nervous sweat pooling under her arms, while she worked to convince herself that clearly Gajeel was not talking to her, he probably didn't even know she was awake.

Still, the guilt wasn't willing to just evaporate on request. 

"Y'know I think I read somewhere that those with impure thoughts should go ahead and pluck their own eyeballs out, rather than inconvenience other people who know how to mind their damn business. Just something to consider."

Pluck out their eyes?!

'Such drastic measures need not be taken!' The water maiden thought as she snapped her eyes closed, refusing to even breathe until her mind was as pure as the driven snow.

She didn't hear Gajeel respond but a moment later Captive-san let out an irritated huff and the springs of his cot squealed, indicating he must have collapsed on it.

Tension was now thick in the air, any peaceful quiet having abandoned the dungeons probably for the rest of that day's waking hours. It seemed as good a time as any to let the others know about her consciousness. Stretching her back out, she turned to the boy in the cell beside her and smiled like she was none the wiser, "Good morning, Captive-san."

He gave her a rather scrutinizing look, though she had to admit there was amusement mixed in there as well, "Not too sure about morning," He pointed towards the clock on the wall, "But it's nice to see you up as well." 

"It's one o'clock?!" Juvia cried, darting off the bed like it had caught fire.

"Whaddya expect?" Gajeel grumbled from the corner, just under the clock, rubbing sleep from his eyes, "You went to bed late, ate late. And before that, ya had quite the little adventure, from what I saw."

He really wasn't going to let her falling asleep on the roof go, was he? 

Refusing to acknowledge her fellow mage's concerns, she turned to the boy in the cell, "Juvia apologizes for her lack of consideration," the bluenette said, dipping at the waist, voice meek with humility, "It was never her intention to shirk her responsibilities towards you! If you'll give her some time breakfast will be prepared, lunch as well, if you like."

It wasn't until she opened her eyes to gauge his reaction and caught a glimpse of her legs, pale and bared before him, that she remembered the psuedo-nightgown she'd gone to sleep in and hopped back onto the bed, snatching up the blankets to get them out of sight. 

Her skin was hot. She's only been awake a grand total of two minutes today, and she'd managed to spend all of it making a complete fool of herself!

"It's no big thing, missing breakfast, don't beat yourself up over," He replied evenly, and she remembered how casually he'd spoken about her attire last night, how he didn't find her the slightest bit inappropriate given that he in turn had flashed himself, "But I do think it's time we take some action on these stitches. I think I might have already plucked a few…"

Juvia was out of bed at once. 

"Yes, of course," She was halfway through the wall when the bluenette remembered the first-aid kit was back upstairs and she froze.

While Captive-san may not mind her attire, her Master was another thing entirely. If he caught her like this… 

Then again, he hadn't been out of his office more than a handful of times, what were the chances?

But it was one o'clock, the rest of the guild was doubtless up and buzzing about, anyone could catch sight of her and use her state of undress as a chance at brownie points in this increasingly fragile time for their guild.

On the other hand, she couldn't just leave him to suffer… 

While indecision wracked her brain, Captive-san brushed his bangs back from his forehead, running a hand through hair now matted with sweat and her attention was diverted once again, "Perhaps you should take a shower first?" 

"Woah, two in one day?" Gray mumbled dryly, "Careful now, I might start to think you have a little crush on m–"

"NO, THAT'S RIDICULOUS!" Juvia screamed.

And then she ran away. 

xGx

By the time Juvia had come back to the dungeons, the iron bed had been packed away somewhere out of sight, and she had arrived bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and laden with food.

Meanwhile, Gray's mood… it hadn't taken a turn for the best. 

He couldn't lie, she'd hurt his feelings a little earlier. 

No. No, you know what, no she didn't. He didn't care. He really didn't care, it's just…

It wasn't ridiculous to assume someone could have a crush on him. 

Was he her cup of tea? 

Apparently not, she'd made that quite clear, but it didn't take a strenuous amount of mental gymnastics to wrap one's mind around liking him. So sorry to her that he wasn't some hulking graffitied neanderthal with arms he had to lumber around like freshly fallen timber, but he was cut from a very different cloth than the men she was used to seeing shuffling their way around Phantom Lord. 

The lazy-eyed inbreds.

In all honesty, once again, he had to feel sorry for her, he really did. Between her involvement in this little shit-show they had running here, and her abhorrent taste in men, her future did not look bright. At least not in Gray's mind.

But his opinion didn't really matter did it? 

'I can't fucking wait to get out of here!' Gray thought furiously, glaring at the back of the bluenette's head while she nibbled on fruit and chatted with Black Steel. ' These people, they're the only ridiculous thing I see! Hell, you can see they were crazy, a mile away!'

"Captive-san?" The Rain Woman had turned to look at him just then with deceptively innocent eyes, "Juvia understands fruit isn't your favorite–" 

"Dumbass is gonna die of scurvy…" Black Steel chimed in with no small amount of glee. 

Rather than tell him off, she nodded solemnly and said, "It's important you have something to eat. And the kiwi is very fresh. Unless… are you not a fan–?"

"Food's fine," He grouched, snapping a banana in half blindly and stuffing it into his mouth. 

"That's good," She beamed and returned to her previous conversation. 

"–think you heard wrong."

"No, that's not possible. Silas was very certain, she spoke–"

"Silas' word ain't worth air that carries it to yer ears," Black Steel dismissed, popping a couple grapes in his mouth, "I ain't gonna put my neck on the line based on her big ass mouth."

"That's no way to think of her–" 

"She's a walking rumor mill. She just goes around making up stories. You'd think she'd bother getting paid for it, but nah, the bubble brain does it for free." 

"Alright, well, Juvia happens to like Silas–"

"As much as anyone could like a person they'd never directly talked to," He chuckled, rolling his eyes.

"Anyway, Silas spoke to Veren, who was flagged down by Loudon who heard it directly from Noor–"

"Now Noor I might believe."

"Yes, she said Master wanted to speak with you."

Black Steel rolled his tongue over his teeth, studded brows dipped in irritation. His bright red eyes flashed toward Gray, before he shook his head, "If I run into Noor, I'll ask her directly, but I ain't going upstairs right now." 

"Why not? If Master wants you, sooner is always better than later." Gray could have sworn he saw her shudder.

Black Steel didn't say anything, but his eyes bounced over to his cell once again. 

Was he serious?

Juvia seemed to have caught on as well, "Oh, Gajeel-kun, don't be silly."

"Nothing silly about it. The guy's a perv, simple as that. And rune walls ain't a sure thing."

"Juvia wrote it herself!" 

Black Steel gave her a look, but the ice mage couldn't really discern what it meant.

"Look, when he drops off, I'll head up and look for Noor–"

"Why are you being like that, if something happened and Juvia cannot express how doubtful she is of that, she will put a stop to it imme–" 

"You can go ahead and put that between waffle cones and fruit-flavored unicorn piss, on the very long list of shit I don't believe." 

Gray was dumbstruck. What did he mean he didn't believe in waffle cones?

Now visibly shaken, the Fairy Tail mage watched as Juvia heaved and huffed, trying to pull Black Steel to his feet.

Was this the same girl who'd knocked the bastard flat on his back to defend Gray's honor last night, because it looked like she was lacking in the upper arm strength department.

"Come on, you must–! Up! Get up! At least a little–! Gajeel-kun! "

The man wasn't just unmoved, he started casually eating fruit to mock her.

When he took a long healthy sip of water, Gray began to consider maybe she was a natural born kicker instead… 

"What are you even worried about?" She huffed, dropping his arm while she tried to catch her breath.

"I already told y–!"

"Yes, you think he's a pervert–"

Gray waited for her to vehemently deny that unfair slander on his character.

"–but how does that affect Juvia?"

She did not.

"Because that shit don't start and stop at flashing penes," Black Steel started, rage simmering in his eyes as he straightened, "They get comfortable being a pervert in public, and they start having a grand ol' time! You let those kinds of bastards keep their weiners and the next thing ya know they're grabbing at ya, copping a feel at the first opportunity–!"

Like a giant magnet that had sniffed out a fridge from across the room, Juvia's eyes immediately turned and landed on Gray.

Heat scorched his skin as he too remembered the incident from last night, when he'd landed square on her chest, one hand grabbing onto her like it was his to explore. 

His only saving grace was that he genuinely hadn't walked for six days, the blood in body hadn't been circulating properly.

That, and he hadn't actually stripped until a little over an hour later.

Gray's ears began to burn. 

His case was not as solid as he'd like. 

"–nd if I catch him feeling you up? No fights, no warnings, I'ma kill him. End of story."

"Gajeel-kun," Juvia began patiently, "You will go upstairs, find Noor, and confirm if Master wants you. You will not risk your position over what-ifs, and ," He looked like he was prepared to argue, "you will trust Juvia's abilities if the worst happens to come to fruition. But again, Juvia has her doubts."

Perhaps because he knew what had happened to between them, Gray felt her argument wasn't nearly as sound as she thought it was, or perhaps because Black Steel didn 't know about their little incident he was more inclined to listen to her.

Either way, the bastard huffed and he puffed, but after a moment he got to his feet.

He was sure to give the ice mage a hearty dose of his stink eye as he left, but left he did, and a moment later, he and Juvia were alone.

xGx

Truth be told, Gray hadn't thought much about what had happened just down the hall, last night. It's not that he thought it wasn't a big deal, it's just that he'd managed to put it out of his mind.

But now it was back and bigger than ever. An awkward solid barrier, so much more tangible than the rune wall between them, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't help seeing it from her perspective.

She was a smart girl, she no doubt thought she saw a pattern. Sure, Black Steel ran around championing him as the biggest perv in Fiore, but she had the receipts .

Put 'em all together and a horrendous collage could be made.

"Captive-san?" The bluenette murmured, "Juvia has the first aid right here," She lifted the box for him to see, no longer meeting his eye, "It's not difficult to remove the stitches on your own, if you'd like…"

Determined to make this less uncomfortable, even if by force, he announced, "Never really did it before, so…"

It wasn't until the words were out that he realized he may have just inadvertently put her in a corner. What if she'd made that suggestion because she didn't want to be so close, in this tiny cell, alone with him, when no one else was down here to hear her scream? 

The true horror of what those six little words implied dawned on him slowly, but hit him solidly in the chest.

"I mean–"

"Juvia understands, the likelihood of pulling something is small but not zero. Juvia will help."

Faster than he would have thought possible she was through the barrier and by his side, kneeling on the floor while she pulled open the first aid. 

After setting everything out that she'd need from the box, she went to retrieve a candle from one of the scones, and then there was nothing left to keep her from touching him.

Pulling on a pair of black gloves, a little furrow appeared on her brow, "Captive-san?" 

"Hm?"

"Perhaps… Would you like a bit of leather?"

Try as hard as he might, Gray wasn't smart enough to connect those dots. "What?"

"For your mouth?" She mimicked what she meant. "To bite down on?"

A new fear had just been unlocked, "Why–? Wh–Why would I need that Juvia?" 

He hadn't counted on the Rain Woman being vengeful. Mother of Mavis , she was right; Black Steel had no business being worried about her safety if she was comfortable pulling the flesh off her enemies in their moment of vulnerability. 

"Well… Juvia doesn't have any anesthesia."

Right, sure. If that's how she wanted to play it… "My pain tolerance is pretty high." 

Better to feel his skin being ripped off than face the awkward silence, the quiet judgements, even a moment longer. 

"Are you sure?"

No. "Yeah." 

"Very well."

He slid down so he was as flat on his back as his side would allow him to lay, squeezing his eyes shut. Breathing deeply through his nose, he held the air in for a moment, determined to find something to focus on before releasing it. 

The guild, every member, in alphabetical order. That ought work.

ting-ting!

She was testing the tweezers, the tiny tines snapping against each other as she squeezed them, close to his ear, so ominously–

Last names? Yeah, he'd go by last name.

Ok.

Alzack–

Nope, that was his first name… 

Ok. Jet, Droy, Wakaba, Maca–

Why was this so hard? Forget being in alphabetical order, he couldn't even remember if they had last names–

Warm metal brushed against him, while Juvia's gloved fingers spread across his ribcage, leaving his skin taunt and better primed for the tweezers to latch onto the thread.

His mind went uncomfortably blank when he realized what she was going to do, and with only seconds to spare he started screaming at himself, panicked, trying to remember where the fuck Erza Scarlet landed between Elfman Strauss and Mirajan–

"MAVIS FUCKING VERMILION!"

Gray didn't realize he was standing until his knees gave out again.

He pulled his head out of his hands, tears pricking the corners of his eyes while he tried to regulate his breathing.

It wasn't until he'd finished wiping them away, throat dry and a little itchy, that he noticed Juvia wasn't besides him. She had fled, all the way on the other side of the rune wall; the bluenette sat on her knees watching him like he was something to be pitied. 

Oh, great. Now his ego was as bruised as ribs.

"Perhaps… Maybe Juvia is not the best perso–"

"You know what, I don't hold it against you."

The Rain Woman's eyes darted across his face, but she didn't say anything, so Gray continued, "When I first woke up down here, I was pissy, I threw things. And you let me have my tantrum. And as a fellow adult, I understand it's only fair if I let you air out your own grievances."

"…Captive-san?" 

"Do I agree with your methods? Not really." He winced. "It feels a little more personal, more physically abusive, but I understand it's not my place to tell you how to deal. But listen, I just want you to know that everything that happened– it was a complete misunderstanding!"

Juvia remained silent, but she shuffled forward until she was through the barrier and back beside his cot. She sat there, staring.

"I know it doesn't look great, when you put everything together– In most cases, two plus two clearly equals four. But if you give me a second, I can explain why that's not true here. This time it equals five, you gotta believe me!"

She blinked, hand hovering while she listened, and the ice mage was thankful for this moment of clarification he'd been granted.

"First and foremost, I need you to understand something: your's is the first boob I've ever grabbed in my life !"

Her lashes started moving double-time, blinking rapidly, trying to absorb this, "…Ok."

"I don't make it a habit to feel up strangers!" He continued, unable to meet her eyes, now. "I don't make it a habit to strip either, that just sorta happens… but y'know, I'm working on it!"

"…Yeah?"

"Yeah! I mean this is nothing," He gestured wildly around himself, to encompass all the time he had spent in Phantom's dungeon, "if we were at my guild–! Mavis, you'd have seen me ass-naked at least three times a day!"

" …At least!? "

Her squeaks pulled him out of his shyness just enough to look her in the eye, and he could see he was making a bad situation worse.

Her face was beet-red, eyes as wide as saucers and wildly unfocused. The Rain Woman swayed where she sat, mouth agape at his confession, while Gray resisted the urge to hold out a hand and keep her upright.

She was so openly disgusted there was blood running from her nose, the ice mage realized with a start.

"Look, you're perfectly safe here. See?" He very slowly, very deliberately, moved his hands within her line of sight, before tucking them under his arms, "I swear to never touch you like that again."

"Hmm?" She shook herself a bit, expression changing into something Gray didn't quite recognize, " Never? "

"Not for as long as I live," He nodded.

"Well, that's gonna be a long time, perhaps one day, maybe Juvia's birthday or som–"

He raised his hand as if in oath, "Juvia– Er, what's your last name?"

"Lockser." 

"Lockser," He repeated, testing it on his tongue, "Ok. Juvia Lockser, I swear on the good name of my guild, that I will never touch you there, even by accident, even if it could somehow save my life, for as long as I live."

"And Captive-san is swearing on the good name of Fairy Tail, is he?"

"Yes."

"Oh, well," she sighed, smile blossoming in spite of their mortifying conversation, "then Juvia has nothing to worry about."

"Exactly," Gray breathed, relieved she was so capable of forgiveness. "Now could you please…"

"Hm?"

She was swiping down the tweezers with a bit of alcohol, now. 

"Can you please just, maybe not think about that little incident in the hall too hard while you take–"

He was surprised by a slap to his shoulder. It didn't hurt, but he sure wasn't expecting it. "What?"

"What ?" She repeated hotly, expression cross; it was almost funny, "What are you implying? That Juvia would take vengeful actions against you while you're laying here, unguarded, unable to even defend yourself?"

There was a duh in there somewhere, he was sure of it. "Well, yeah–"

"Well, no!" The Rain Woman's eyes were drilling holes in the floor as if she were too angry at his implications to even look at him, "Juvia tries her best not to be a bad person, she is not perfect but she– she tries . To insinuate… No, Juvia did not deliberately hurt you."

"Then what the hell was that before? It felt like you were stripping off my skin!" 

In that short little moment, Gray was pretty sure he saw God . 

And by the way, his mustache was egregious. 

"That's because," She pulled back his arm, revealing his side for the pair of them to see, "whoever put these in… They did an awful job, there's all these little knots in the stitches, Juvia has never seen–!"

Knots?

"It is not her place to judge, however… A– A child would know better. It's going to be so much harder to remove them than Juvia anticipated. She didn't mean to pull Captive-san's skin, she should have warned him…"

Knots.

"Perhaps this is a style where you're from and Juvia is in the wrong? Do they heal faster this way? Does Captive-san remember who did this? Take a moment if you must, think hard."

Gray didn't have to think hard. He didn't have to think at all.

In all his life, only one person had ever done such shoddy medical work that Porlyusica broke down crying .

Eight years ago, after a hearty game of tag in West Forest, Elfman had tripped over a rough root and split his forehead. He'd bled and cried, and scared the hell out of Gray. 

It was only the three of them in the forest that day. Himself, Elfman, and the sole practitioner. 

Erza .

Knots , that had been the thing to break the pink-haired doctor. Knots in the stitches, she couldn't wrap her mind around it.

Erza had left her little clinic in a tree, proud as a prize stallion, completely oblivious to the normally stoic woman's sobs, inside. 

Elfman had the scar from those stitches to this day. 

Thinking back, he remembered very clearly, even while half drunk with pain, how she'd ripped open the curtain to the makeshift medical tent they'd propped up on Galuna Island, purposely, cleared out the room with all the authority her voice could command of others, and informed him that her skills would be at his disposal.

Gray also remembered crying out for help, how he'd tried to scramble away, the glint of a sword handle, and then darkness… 

No wonder it had taken all this time for him to heal. No wonder he'd been bleeding out periodically.

That damn woman! 

"But… Juvia understands, maybe the circumstances weren't all that convenient. If you had to do it yourself, well… It– You really tried your best."

She was misinterpreting the rage beginning to simmer within Gray, taking it personally. 

"It's a shitty job, done by an even shittier nurse."

Her hand went to his chest, concern clear, "Juvia didn't say tha–"

"Captive-san said it. "

Her hold on him became more firm, pushing until he was laying down, "Juvia will be more careful, she cannot apologize enough for not noticing sooner."

"It's fine." The girl took to guilt like it was free ice cream. "Really, it has nothing to do with you."

She looked unconvinced, so he redirected the conversation, "Pass me that book?"

She did, one brow raised in curiosity.

"I'm gonna read while you work," Better that than try to remember Max's last name– Y'know he was starting to think he didn't know the ins-and-outs of his guild as well as he'd once believed, "If I focus on this…" 

Well, it wasn't going to make the pain go away, "It'll be better, if I have something to focus on, He concluded.

Juvia dipped her chin, "If it's not too much trouble, read aloud, please. That way, Juvia will know if an issue arises and she needs to ease into it a bit more."

"I think I'm ahead of you, are you ok with spoilers?" 

She nodded, attention more centered on his side than his words. He watched while she pulled up her hair, remembering with a start that she didn't normally wear it long and loose like that, then shook himself slightly, flipping open her book.

"I'm on page 738."

Her head popped up, "My goodness, you're a fast reader!"

He tried not to preen; putting on a face of faux-contention, he deadpanned, "Thanks, unfair imprisonment has really done wonders on my attention span."

Her lips twitched before she bent her head over him once again. 

"I'm just gonna start at the top of the page."

"Very well."

He felt a slight pinch, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before, so Gray was able to begin, " The bite of the crystalized pineapple and cranberries she'd eaten, delicacies she'd never fathomed in her 19 years before living in the palace, had been bitter enough. Coupled with the dark wine she'd seen more than a few of the gentry downing with puckered lips and pinched expressions and one could assume her mouth would be frothing with discomfort, desperately seeking relief.

However, as the King's tongue explored her own, his lips enrobed with the wine he'd been trying to drown his sorrows in moments before, she could admit that there was pleasure hidden within mild suffering. 

Perhaps she was drunk herself.

Nonsense words, half formed from thoughts he'd cut off abruptly when he'd rolled on top of her, tumbled from her lips in a daze. The fog in her mind left her floating, and his lips on her chin, neck, collarbone, did nothing to help.

Distantly she heard the snap, though she couldn't quite place it, and understood he was ready and willing to be more daring. All that could stop him was her voice, but as he continued nipping the tip of ear, the will to end this vanished. 

The freedom he'd just been granted was dangerous for them both. 

"Perhaps…" But the rest of the thought fled her; his thumb had found the band of her garter, his fingers making quick work of the lace ties keeping her stockings up. 

In seconds, he had one of her thighs on his shoulder, her eyes flying open when he lowered his mout–"

"What the hell, Juvia?"

She'd slapped the book into his chest, face flushed and eyes wide, "How–? How cou–? Captive-san, that is not–!" 

Ah, she was probably confused. 

Based on where she'd left off in the book, the main character hadn't even been willing to listen to him talk for five minutes without considering poisoning him, and yet here they were, tangled in each other. That had to be quite the leap they'd made, from Juvia's perspective. 

Now understanding where her confusion was coming from, he explained, "Ok, maybe what's missing is the context. You see, the poor girl managed to secure about a third of the funding needed to vamp up their military after the King's fiancee ran away at the altar–"

" He got engaged?! To whom?" 

"Yeah, see, that's a spoiler." Kinda tried to warn her about that. "Anyway, now that he doesn't have to get married, he feels there's no excuse why they shouldn't move forward with their little rendezvous. So as a thank you for the money, he decided to eat her out in the wedding gift room."

She mimicked a fish for a few moments before blustering out, "The context makes it no better!"

Maybe he didn't explain it right. "Ok, see, he was very sad –"

"It makes no difference to Juvia, that is pure filth you're reading aloud!"

"Oh, well." She was taking some pretty hard lines for someone who hadn't even finished the first arc of the story, "If it makes you feel better, I don't think he's going to get her to completion. I mean, the wedding gift room ? Filled with reminders of his very recent engagement? It doesn't scream romance or you're my one true love . It's more like I'm willing to get down and dirty with just about anyone now that I'm officially free, now lemme pop open those legs like a pack of peanuts a –"

"What if instead," The bluenette cut in, voice an octave higher, " Juvia shared a story with you? Something a little more, uh… mixed company friendly?"

"What mixed company?" Gray asked, gesturing lazily to the mostly empty dungeon, "It's just you and me here, mono e mono, a little freak and her kiddnapp…" 

The end of his sentence died in his throat, not only because she'd interrupted him, but because he'd caught the precise moment her entire demeanor changed. Eyes wide in a wild furious sort of way, color deepening from the neck up, "Juvia is not a–!"

She cut herself off with a deep, forced inhale, holding it in just long enough for some of the red to recede, before she snapped her eyes back upon him. 

She took her book back, none too gently, "You spent all that time convincing Juvia you aren't a– a– a sexual deviant ," Her face hadn't been it's usual color for about ten minutes now, and he doubted it was going to be that way any time soon, "and then you pull something like this?" 

"What do you mean something like this, I'm reading!"

Her expression oozed disapproval, "You know what Juvia means." 

He really didn't. " You recommended the book–" 

"Juvia never recommended that , she didn't even know the book contained that!" The bluenette hissed, like she passing along a terrible secret, "She thought you would like a story about horses –"

"What horses?" He whispered, searching her face as though she'd gone mad. 

In turn, she didn't even bother to look defensive, "Well, they drive carriages whenever they have to leave the castle, don't they? The horses pull those carriages, no magic involved at all. It adds charm!"

He should have insisted on some anesthesia. 

"Juvia… that was the smallest little detail…" If there were horses in that book, they were purely mentioned in passing, they didn't even have names. Their sole purpose was to set the scene, nothing else.

To recommend a three thousand page story, among the hundreds the magical book was no doubt capable of telling, based on that…

The water maiden had gotten all huffy, tossing away the soiled bandages all while she pouted, bemoaning, "Juvia honestly believed in Captive-san, and this whole time, Gajeel-kun was right about you…!"

Oh no he wasn't!

"There's a big difference between me showing off little–" The ice mage had come so close to letting his name slip just then, and he got the feeling she sensed it because her eyes lit up with unmasked anticipation, "Little me– "

Disappointment dimmed them again. 

" –and reading about a couple wacky characters. My nether regions exist in reality , whereas they are just ink on magic paper," He went for the book again, but she used her kneeling position above him as leverage to keep it out of his reach. He sighed, "You're being childish."

"And your behavior is far too mature," She admonished, like she'd caught a kitten in the treat bag. 

The bluenette tucked the book behind herself, and resettled with posture so straight it looked like her spine had been replaced with a steel flag pole, "Please resume your resting position, Juvia will begin shortly." 

In the face of her needlessly formal tone, Gray flopped back like a pancake, disapproval clear in his expression and voice, "Never took you as a book banner, Juvia." He was learning all kinds of things about her, and he wasn't sure how to feel about it. 

"It is not banned . You can have it back when we're done, Juvia would just prefer you not read it to her ."

He could have read it silently, y'know. 

But he didn't say that. Instead, he lifted his arm to let her resume her work.

xGx

Gray wasn't sure how long it had been or how many stitches she had released, but he knew one thing for certain, he couldn't continue this in silence. 

Every moment seemed amplified with nothing else to focus on. The pain prickling along his skin on his side was enough to bring fresh tears to his eyes, until he'd finally had enough.

"Hey." 

No response.

Funny, he knew she was there. 

"He– Hey, Juvia." 

"Hm?"

"Didn't you– ah!" He squeezed his jaw, riding out the twinge. Gray shook his head roughly, "Didn't you promise me a story?"

She looked up, face closer to his than he'd realized.

It didn't seem to bother her, "Eh? You'd actually like to hear it?"

He would listen to penguins pissing in a bucket if it could take his mind off Erza's shitty nursing skills. "Yeah. Please, whatever– Yeah, you have the floor." 

Pink bloomed along her cheeks, and he couldn't figure out why.

She cleaned the tweezers with a bit more alcohol, face hidden when she whispered, "Juvia isn't much of a storyteller, but she does have a favorite. It's called The Red Thread of Fate."

He'd never heard of it, which was perfect. "Sounds great."

The bluenette nodded, "It's her first time, y'know, doing this sort of thing, so," She glanced at him, her gaze quickly darting away when their eyes met, "Will you promise to be gentle with Juvia?"

He could have said something about the strange way she'd worded such a benign request on his part, but his mind went oddly quiet, just then. 

She waited for him to respond, and he mumbled out a mildly confused, "Sure." 

Her head bobbed again.

As if to respect her request, the quiet of the dungeon took on almost a different air, warmer. More comforting. She had resumed her place beside him, hovering intently, before she began.

" There are many versions of the tale ," Juvia whispered, voice mellow and soothing enough for him to close his eyes, " It comes as quite the surprise you haven't heard it before. Many people have many theories as to who came up with it first, but for Juvia, that doesn't really matter. The idea that all across Earthland, people have been compelled to tell this story feels, at least to Juvia, like it contains some inkling of truth. And really, that's all that matters.

"There are three versions Juvia holds near to her heart. All of them feature a central character: Yuè Lǎo (月老), the old lunar matchmaker god, who is in charge of marriages.

"One story involves a young boy. Walking home one night, a young boy sees an old man– Yue Lao –standing beneath the moonlight. The man explains to the boy that he is attached to his destined wife by a red thread. Yue Lao shows the boy the young girl who is destined to be his wife. Being young and having no interest in having a wife, the young boy picks up a rock and throws it at the girl, running away."

Gray's eyes snapped open, certain he'd misheard. 

"Many years later, when the boy has grown into a young man, his parents arrange a wedding for him. On the night of his wedding, his wife waits for him in their bedroom, with the traditional veil covering her face. 

"Raising it, the man is delighted to find that his wife is one of the great beauties of his village. However, she wears an adornment on her eyebrow. He asks her why she wears it and she responds that when she was a young girl, a boy threw a rock at her that struck her, leaving a scar on her eyebrow. 

"She self-consciously wears the adornment to cover it up. The woman is, in fact, the same young girl connected to the man by the red thread shown to him by Yue Lao back in his childhood, showing that they were indeed connected by the red thread of fate, all along.

" Another version–" 

Wait, was that it? 

They went through with the marriage? Did he ever tell her? Did he feel guilty for permanently disfiguring his wife? Were there consequences?

Did he still throw rocks at women?

None of Gray's concerns were addressed, mainly because Juvia didn't seem to have the slightest problem with what she'd just relayed to him. If anything, she was even more hunky-dory than when she began. 

And she'd plowed on to the next version before he could even wrap his mind around which part of that story fucked him up the most. 

"–o f the same story involves an ambitious young man who talks to Yue Lao and insists on asking him about who will he marry, thinking that he'll meet himself a rich girl. 

"Yue Lao points at a poor-looking little girl who's taking a stroll with an old blind woman in a marketplace, shows him a red thread between the two, and tells the man that he'll marry her someday. 

"Displeased, the man tells a servant–"

Oh, no, no, no.

"–to kill the two–" 

Oh, Mavis, why?

 "–and then leave the village.

Gray's eyes were directly on Juvia now, boring into the side of her face with quiet disappointment.

Too quiet apparently, because she didn't notice and continued humming along her story.

"Years later the man, now a promising public officer, marries a beautiful woman from a rich family who is very much the perfect wife for him save for two details: she has a limp and covers her forehead with a silk patch for undisclosed reasons."

If this was going where he thought it was going…

"He asks his wife why and she begins crying, telling him that she is the niece of the family leaders, rather than their daughter: her parents died when she was young and she initially lived with her old blind nanny, but one day a madman stabbed her caretaker to death in a local marketplace, and wounded her, leaving her scarred and almost crippled. 

"The man realizes that Yue Lao was right, tearfully confesses that he ordered the attack and asks his wife for forgiveness, which she gives to him."

WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT? 

An innocent woman was dead! It was all his fault, she should get to stab his old nanny at the very least.

At this point, Gray's mouth was hanging open, looking for logic in a place clearly bereft of it.

They were going two for two now, and story number three didn't seem like it was willing to break tradition.

And the Rain Woman claimed these were her favorite versions? He'd hate to see the reject pile.

She swiped at his skin with a damp cloth while he stared, forced to see her in yet another new light. 

" In another story, a girl has a crush on a boy and decides to declare her love for him."  

Ok. Well, maybe with the main character being a girl this time, the version wouldn't be quite so ruthless.

" Unfortunately, the boy rejects her and makes fun of her. The girl runs off to a fountain where she meets Yue Lao who tells her they are soul mates.

"The girl is still fuming and runs off." 

Good for her.

"When the girl becomes a lady, she meets a young man who seems very charming and in other terms familiar to her. She then asks the man for his name and he says the name of the young boy. The lady doesn't seem to realize though. On their special day, he tells her a girl liked him but he was foolish and made fun of her for it, he then exclaims the girl had the same name as her. Realizing who he was, she admits she was the girl and he eventually apologizes."

And– And then, what? They get married? That's it?

And what did she mean by eventually ? How far down the line did she have to wait for a simple sorry? 

Gray released a sigh. 

Better than the others? Yes. But the bar was underground there, a woman was murdered . 

How could she think, above any other story ever told, that this was so good she actually considered it her favorite?

No. 

When Juvia turned away again to do something or other, he took that as the opportunity he needed to sit up and confront her, head-on.

A small smile graced her lips, completely oblivious to his concerns, "So, what do you think?"

"Juvia…." Where to even begin? 

"Is something wrong?"

Yeah. "Something's wrong with you." 

She pulled back as if aghast, which struck Gray as a little funny. "Because if those were your favorite stories, I'm just gonna have to assume you didn't own any other books as a child."

She blinked, then shook her head, finally appearing to cotton on, "Captive-san, you've got it all wrong, Juvia had access to other books, it's just… she genuinely loves The Red Thread of Fate."

He shook his head soundly, simply unwilling to believe. "Look, an orphanage, that's where you grew up? You don't have to protect them anymore. Denying a child the right to go to the library is a criminal offense in my book. And if past relationships or some sense of loyalty is keeping you from writing them up, don't give it a thought. I'll do it. All I need is a name, and they will be anonymously reported to, and brought forth before, the Council."

"Juvia likes those stories," she repeated, laughing.

Gray didn't exactly feel this was a laughing matter. 

"If you liked the Fate String–" 

"The Red Thread of Fate."

"Exactly. If your heart is so open it could welcome Yarn's Destiny," She threw him a look that bounced off him like sunlight on white walls, "you are going to burst into flames over Cinderella."

"Juvia knows of Cinderella," She rolled her eyes, snapping the first aid kit closed, "Of course she does. And it's fine, it's simply not her favorite." 

"Right. Which part turned you away, the lack of throwing rocks at little girls, or the way everybody lived in the end? Was it the cuddliness that really broke you down, Juvia?"

"Yes, because cutting off your toes to fit a slipper and having birds pluck out your eyes are so genteel."

"I beg your pardon?" What the fuck kind of Cinderella was she reading? 

"In the story," She replied like the nonsense she was spouting was obvious, "the step-mother pulls her daughter into a back room and chops off her toes to get her foot to fit in the slipper. And then after Cinderella is declared the true owner of it, magic birds come down and pluck the other sister's eyes out as punishment for how she'd treated Cin–"

"That was the bootleg version," he declared, sure of himself now, "the real one– there's talking mice, a magic pumpkin, indentured servitude. Completely up your alley. If only you had a library card ," Gray tutted, full of pity. 

"Juvia will have you know Phantom has an extensive library upstairs that she frequently quite regu–"

"There's a library upstairs and you're clinging to The Sewing Pattern Fortunes?"

"You're doing that on purpose."

"I know." The mage chuckled, "It's just…  There's nothing in that story to love. I'm sorry."

"That's not true! The boy and girl, each time, they meet under contentious circumstances but as they grow and understand each other, they fall in love, it's very romantic. They were meant for each other."

"Right." He could see why it was considered fantasy. 

"Anyway Juvia wasn't asking for your criticism," She folded her arms, "she just wanted to know how you felt."

"About what?" 

"Your stitches. How's your side now?"

Gray looked down with a start. She was done. All the thread had been extracted and placed in a little disposable plate beside her, he was officially free and clear, and he hadn't felt a thing. 

He opened his mouth to thank her, but paused, as her expression was still cross, "You wouldn't understand why Juvia wants to believe in something like that…" The bluenette mumbled. 

In the wake of her ministrations, he was even willing to hear her fucked up version of Cinderella, "No, no. I do, I do. The number of times I've laid awake at night, wishing someone would throw a rock at my head so I could find a wife are immeasurable. I've pushed back my appointment with Kardia Cathedral so many times, I just know the bishop has it out for me. If only I had an old nanny I could kill off…"

Then he thought of Ur. 

Oh Mavis, he hoped Deliora wasn't his soul mate. That bastard had been flushed out to sea, how the hell was he supposed to build a loving house and home with a pile of water? 

As if she could sense his thoughts, Juvia pouted, "It's very easy for you to be so dismissive, Captive-san has already found his one true love."

He scoffed initially, but it ended up as quiet laughter, "Where'd you hear that?"

"Please do not be coy," The Rain Woman murmured grimly, "Juvia knows of your girlfriend."

Gray sat up further, back against the wall, inspecting his chest with a satisfied nod while he poked and prodded, before stating flatly, "I don't have a girlfriend."

"Yes. You do." 

"No. I don't ." Gray was pretty sure he'd be at least one of the first people to know if he did. Top five, tops. "Are you sure you don't have me confused w–?"

The maker mage paused, watching her lips move rapidly, and he was pretty sure he heard her mutter, "Juvia never intended to be a homewrecker!" before saucer-sized eyes darted up to his face and she cried out, " Fianceé? "

"No, I don't–" 

" Wife!? " She hollered with a level of alarm Gray felt would only be appropriate if he revealed he was hiding an atomic bomb somewhere in his pants.

"I'm not married–"

"You've separated," the bluenette whispered, scandalized, "To think you two have already gone through a divorce at your age… So young, yet so much worldly experience, Juvia cannot imagine–"

"I have no id–"

" But what about the children? " She gasped, fully ignoring him now as she clutched her face.

It was a lot like talking to a chicken.

Honestly.

This level of misunderstanding and confusion would only be excusable if she were a fully fledged fowl.

He grabbed her wrists, shaking her slightly as he declared very deliberately, enunciating each syllable, "I'm not seeing anyone. I am not married. I have never been married. I am never getting married–"

"Well, let's not be hasty…"

"–and I don't have any fucking kids." He released her with a sharp huff from his nostrils, maintaining eye contact so he could watch as the dots slowly connected for her. "Was I clear enough?" 

Juvia's chin bobbed, though her brows were still scrunched with concern. 

"Captive-san, do you mean to say… That blonde girl with the keys…  is not expecting your third child?" She asked cautiously, with a voice that almost sounded like wonder.

" No! " Gray hollered back, " I've been to her house once, I'm not even completely sure what her last name is!"

Well, he knew it, he just wasn't all that sure how to spell it. In his mind he knew he'd never seen a hyphen, yet for some reason it just felt right when he heard it touch his ear–

Then something horrible dawned on him. "Wait… when she was here… Did Lucy say th–?"

He hadn't pegged the new girl as an outright lunatic, but then again he'd been wrong in his assessment of Phantom Lord; who's to say how accurate his ' batshit crazy ' radar actually was?

But Juvia was quick to jump in, then, "Oh! No, no, no! She never said that, did she? And neither did you." With her face resting against her palm, the bluenette grinned. 

Grinned.

Her demeanor was downright sunny. A complete 180° from the woman just a moment before.

Gray blinked, newly mesmerized.

"It seems Juvia got her wires crossed a bit there! Captive-san has never been with blondie, they have no underlying romantic connection. Is that right?"

"…Yeah?"

Almost impossibly, her smile widened while she gazed at him. "Juvia wants cookies!" The bluenette announced, rather loudly.

Admittedly, quieter than she'd hollered wife , but still with enough alarm to only really be appropriate if he'd revealed to her that Lucy was strictly attracted to elk.

Between one second and the next, she was up on her feet, startling Gray yet again, before she zipped through the rune wall, out of his cell.

"Juvia will not return until she has the best cookies on Earthland! Captive-san is sure to love them! Goodbye!"

And then she bounced away, practically floating on air.

Gray had been through quite a few bizarre interactions since this little stint with Phantom started, including, but not limited to, their goddamn guild master, but for some reason, this was the one that truly stumped him.

How could she think he was 18 years old with three kids and an ex-wife?  

What was wrong with these people?!

xGx

Once again, the bluenette proved to be true to her word. About an hour and a half had passed since she'd declared her intent to make the best cookies on Earthland, a pretty tall order in his book. 

Not only were they beautifully presented – when did she find the time to hand paint little snowflakes on the parchment paper the cookies were nestled in, as well as bedazzle the box and ribbon? –  he had to admit, flavor-wise, they were some bomb ass cookies.

Gajeel was back with a none too subtle glare at him, but as there nothing out of place for him to see for himself, and both Gray and Juvia had taken a silent unanimous vow not to speak on the night before, he'd stomped over to the corner, no words passing between them. 

Juvia bounded over to him excitedly, completely unfazed by his sour demeanor, and presented him with a second box Gray hadn't noticed before. 

"What is it?"

She pressed the box into his arms, "Juvia's very special, Death By Chocolate cookies!"

Gray froze, pulling out the treat that had already touched his tongue, the fifth one in a row so far. He squinted, "Why do you call 'em that, Juvia?"

"Because there's a lot of chocolate in them!" She beamed.

"Yeah, that better be the reason…" He muttered, stuffing his face once more.

Black Steel popped open the box with a flick of his thumb, nodding appreciatively, before digging in himself.

Silence reigned in the dungeon, only broken by quiet murmurs of admiration for the work the bluenette has put into her baked goods, while she simpered to herself, eyes closed, hands clasped under her chin.

Something flashed across Gray's vision, but as it had happened so fast at first he took it as an odd flare up of the candles, perhaps reflecting off the bars of the other cells. But then it kept happening, and he began to notice it only happened when Black Steel was stuffing his face. 

The maker mage motioned Juvia closer and waited until she was just under an inch from the barrier before whispering, "Hey are you trying to kill him?"

"Hm?" She pulled back, startled, "Why would you say that?"

"There's–" Gray squinted in case he was seeing wrong, but no, he was sure the only thing that could reflect light like that was metal, "There's like shrapnel or something in his food–"

"Oi! You got yours, fix yer greedy eyes over somewhere else," The older boy growled.

Rather childishly , if Gray were being honest.

"Gajeel-kun, please," the bluenette sighed, like she was explaining two plus two to the same ape for the upteenth time and she couldn't stand to do it again, "No one on Earthland can consume those cookies besides you. He doesn't want to eat them, he's simply confused why you can ."

"That's what they all say," he grumbled.

" Yes, because they are all reasonably confused!" Juvia rubbed a hand down her face before she returned to Gray, "Gajeel-kun is an iron dragon slayer," She explained, and Gray felt the equivalent of a sucker punch hit his gut at the news, "He eats metal, the same way we'd eat any normal meal, though when he consumes it, there's kind of a little boost for him, magic wise, depending on the quality. Therefore, certain metals, especially the rare or super refined ones, are like treats to him. He has a sizable collection of different kinds and sometimes Juvia will bake them into her cookies as an extra special something just for him.“

The ice mage turned to the obnoxious boy across from him, seeing him in a new light.

"Juvia is sure all that is a lot to take in, it is rather strange, eating a element–"

"I'm familiar with the concept."

His mind went to that night, when Gajeel had bent the bars of his cell, like pulling apart two sheets of paper, no sense of strain when he pushed them back into place, waltzing away.

His arms and face, and possibly other places hidden by his clothes at the moment, were studded with metal.

The poles of iron, bigger than tree trunks that he'd destroyed the guild with.

For whatever reason Gray could only assume he was some kind of maker mage, unusually enthusiastic about ironworks; it hadn't even occurred to him to think of lost magic. 

He felt dumb for not recognizing it before: the wolfish expressions, his need to turn every little thing into a fight . The air he carried around was of a more sinister quality, but the similarities were blaring now that she'd pointed out the missing piece.

A dragon slayer .

He'd been cut from the same cloth as Natsu, all the signs had been there, right in front of him.

"Wonderful."

Juvia's head tilted at his tone, but he just shook his head a bit and slumped back onto his cot.

This meant… 

Mavis, this sucked . If this guy was a dragon slayer and he'd gone head-to-head with Natsu….

According to the bits and pieces he'd picked up, Black Steel and Flame Brain were pretty much even power-wise. What had done Natsu in in the end was his motion sickness, the one thing Gray could rely on, if one of their usual spars went on too long for his patience to manage. 

Black Steel suffered from no such thing. 

Which meant Gray was going to have to be really honest with himself.

If Natsu didn't have that one weakness, and he came at him, no holds bar, could Gray beat him? 

Did he believe he could beat him so much that he was willing to gamble whatever chance came his way for escape, if only to keep his pride from being bruised at the idea that a guy as strong as Natsu could take him down? 

Gray crossed his arms, jaw locked in frustration, the chocolate that still coated his tongue bitter and wholly unpleasant in the wake of this news. 

His pride was an ugly, impulsive thing. It didn't care one way or another what the smart thing to do was when it was given even the smallest opportunity for glory and as he gave Gajeel another once-over, he knew deep down that he would never pass up the chance to see who would come out on top, even if his safety was on the line.

Perhaps especially since his safety was on the line.

He ran a rough hand through his hair, pulling the ends slightly with a short huff, then went for another cookie. 

Juvia turned to Gajeel, then, "By the way, did you find Noor? Was it true Jose-sama wanted to speak with you?"

Black Steel nodded once. 

"Well, what did he want?" 

His eyes flickered to Gray momentarily, before he gruffed out, "Got a new assignment."

"Ah, really? When do you leave?"

Gray could sense… reluctance in the dragon slayer's delayed response. "Ain't like that. The mission is in house."

Juvia's fingertips traced patterns in the floor, "That's…" 

Gray could see unvarnished confusion in the way she moved her hand; no doubt it was missing the little doll she usually played with. He wondered where it had gone. 

"Has anyone else been given official duties inside the guild? Maybe it– But Jose-sama wouldn't make Gajeel-kun take notes for him…" Something seemed to occur to her then, "Oh, it's cleaning duties." She murmured, and her expression turned guilty, "Juvia knows we're all supposed to keep the place clean, but it's wasn't that bad when she went up an hour ago, perhaps you won't need to take on all the work by you–"

"Look, just drop it already."

"But…" 

She sighed, almost as if to expel whatever manic desires kept her focus pinpointed on Gajeel, but Gray knew she wouldn't be able to move on until she expressed her concerns. 

And he was right. 

"If you must clean– Juvia of course isn't calling you dirty, it's just, when you're on window duty, you can be so rough , Juvia fears you'll break them and the guildhall has been through quite enough this past week–"

"It ain't cleaning duty!"

She went silent. But it was the kind of silence that led Gray to believe she was just thinking about it twice as hard. Gajeel must have come to the same conclusion, because he'd stopped eating, face now pinched. 

"Grocery shopping!" She cheered, looking quite proud of herself, "Of course, yes, we're running low on– Well, just about everything! And here, Juvia was so worried Captive-san was going to starve." The bluenette fluttered her fingers at Gray, "She didn't want to say anything, y'know spread worry around unnecessarily, but Juvia did use quite a few ingredients. She kept making cookies and hating them, then throwing everything away. It was a mess! And as a result the cupboards are bare.

She turned back to Gajeel, "Alright, well, you should pick up some noodles, spinach, dashi, of course. Uh, cocoa powder, salmon, milk, bread, milk bread , shrimp, oatmeal, eggs , we're all out of eggs–" She looked up suddenly, "Do you want to write this down?"

It gave Gray no small amount of pleasure to see the way Juvia was unintentionally working Black Steel's nerves. "Did I say anythin' about going to the fucking store? Yer jumpin' to conclusions and I ain't supplying ya the damn net."

She threw up her arms, "Well, what other kind of mission would you need to do for the guild?"

"I never said for , I said inside ." 

"Well, yes, alright, inside then. What must Gajeel-kun do inside the guild?" 

"Ya're so noisy," He griped, pulling something out of the back pocket of his Easter themed Phantom Lord jumpsuit, "It ain't gonna make you feel better, knowing. But since you won't lay off."

He tossed something in the air, and Juvia caught in one hand, brows furrowed. 

It was a piece of paper, torn straight out of a notebook, though from where Gray was seated, he couldn't make out anything written on it.

He was, however, able to see Juvia's reaction. 

"This is…" 

"A kill list."

Juvia flipped the paper over quickly, scanning it in alarm before she let her hand go limp at her side, the sheet landing next to it, her knees pulling up to her chest tightly, "Three quarters of The Element Four…"

"Yeah," Gajeel nodded, looking surly when he pushed away his box of cookies, "by the end of the week."

By kill the ice mage was sure Black Steel meant kick out. As brutal as this place was, he doubted very seriously that Gajeel and Juvia would be stupid enough to openly admit to murder right in front of a witness.

Although they did speak of kidnapping Happy like they were planning a picnic in the park, so nothing was really guaranteed….

Gray wasn't sure if it was his place to pipe up during a moment of internal guild contention, but he also couldn't just stay silent, "So… By The Element Four, I mean, that's you. Three quarters..." The odds weren't looking great, "Are you–? You're done?" 

"No. Juvia was spared." It looked like she was going to cry. 

"Then that's…?" Well, not good news. For whatever reason a small part of him had been hoping… "You must be doing something right."

A fact that horrified Gray a little bit. 

"No." Juvia sat up suddenly, and he thought she was responding to him, but her face was directed at Gajeel, expression pleading, "There must be some kind of misunderstanding. Something… We don't have the numbers to support this many cuts–"

"Careful." Gajeel's eyes darted to Gray with a clear warning implied, but Juvia dismissed his concern with a wave. 

"After what happened to the branches– We're at less than 15% capacity as it is! This makes no sense, there's no way Jose-sama could pos–"

"It's all there in black and white, I listened to the geezer go on for an hour. Maybe more. Couldn't be clearer, this is what he wants."

"But what about his client, the wealthy man from country wanted us–"

" Juvia! "

Pink bloomed on her cheeks, and she flinched as if to physically distance herself from Black Steel's angry bark. Gray realized that was probably the first time he'd ever seen Gajeel really snap at her. Whatever this wealthy man wanted must be more serious than anything else they'd ever discussed in front of him.

He would bet the last of his cookies – something he really didn't want to do – that they were referring to Lucy's dad. He was sure of it. Maybe they didn't know that he knew the man was working with them, or maybe the work they were doing had morphed into something else, he didn't know. 

Gray probably wouldn't have been interested if not for the dragon slayer's reaction and now he wondered idly if he could manage to weasel something out of Juvia once they were alone.

Perhaps due to his newly recognized, completely unfounded belief in his own ability to extract info out of others, he sat up as if wholly part of their discussion, "So now what? You put it to a vote? Pull in the remaining members to debate their merits? I guess you're in charge of their letters of departure?" He asked, gesturing to the dragon slayer. 

Seemed kinda silly, the man didn't have much, in the way of words. 

Gajeel scoffed, almost as if he'd heard Gray's mental aside. Juvia looked at him as if he'd sprouted a second head. 

"I'ma grab 'em by the scruff of their neck, and toss 'em out the nearest window. They're done."

"No…" Gray started slowly, trying to decipher if he was speaking in hyperbole or not, "you don't mean that." 

"He does." 

"No."

" Yeah. " 

"What about their exit package?"

He looked as if he were genuinely holding back laughter, "Their exit package includes all their bones remaining whole and inside their body when they leave and that's only if they don't put up a fight."

Juvia flinched again. 

"You would do that to your friends?"

Gajeel waved him off, expression a bit more clear as if he'd needed the humor Gray was supplying, "A snake needs to shed dead skin to stay healthy, same thing for guilds with dead weight."

"No, it's not the same," Gray retorted hotly, "because they're not some fucking reptile's old discarded scales, they're people. Who work with you and maybe, for Mavis' alone knows what reason, trust you, and now you're planning on what?"

"Launching them straight out the nearest window." Bright white teeth flashed menacingly. 

Something about Gray must truly bring out the worst in the boy, because his grin vanished at Juvia's words, "The Element Four are the pillars of our guild."

Black Steel's expression was flat. "Not after I'm done with this list, they won't be."

The ensuing silence only lasted a moment, just long enough for his indignation to flare up again, "And you're ok with this?" Gray turned his attention to The Rain Woman, "You're cool with your buddies getting a boot? What about when it happens to you? When you're considered the weakest link? Are you gonna walk out with a grin when Jose cuts you like a too long thread?"

"Can't focus on that." Gajeel cut in with a shrug that didn't look as careless as Gray was sure he'd intended, "All that matters is that today, it ain't us. And if we wanna be able to say that t'morrow," he nodded towards the list, "we keep our noses clean and listen when we get a special assignment."

His gaze settled on Juvia with a specific, unspoken weight. 

For the bluenette's part, her mouth moved wordlessly for a moment, fingers going to her throat, only to find it empty and moving to the ends of her hair, "Gajeel-kun is not the best listener," She began, "Maybe this is a list of hardest workers? Perhaps Jose-sama wants to honor them. A party!"

Even Gray knew she was reaching for the stars on that one. 

For all his faults, Gajeel didn't burst her bubble. He stood with a shake of his head and walked right by her, taking back his list and giving her hair a quick ruffle before stomping the rest of the way out of the dungeon. 

Just because he'd left didn't mean Gray's temper had cooled. Juvia seemed to notice. 

"Are you really angry?" 

"Hell yeah," His mouth was set in a straight line, answer immediate, "I don't understand you people, I really don't."

She dabbed at the wetness still clinging to her lashes, and mumbled, "We're just people…" 

Gray scoffed, "If you were, you'd understand giving your guild mates a dignified exit. You'd understand compassion." He slammed the lid of his cookie tin with more force than was called for. "Fairy Tail would never do something like this."

A small noise in the back of Juvia's throat had him turning his heat her way, "Are you calling me a liar?" 

The bluenette pulled her lip in, searching his face a moment before she relented, "No. Juvia believes you. It's just… Fairy Tail is hardly the poster of morality."

"Meaning what?" 

"Meaning… Well, your idea of right and wrong it's well documented and… Juvia thinks it should be called into question when you're judging others."

His eyes narrowed further.

"Juvia feels… you may be speaking out of both sides of your mouth when you reference your guild. You're no angel–"

"Really?" He challenged, "Give me an example, then." 

The Rain Woman sighed, "Juvia didn't say that to upset y–" 

"No! You think we're awful. You just said it."

"Please, don't be dramatic, that's not how Juvia feels–" 

"Don't back down now, three examples!" Gray was on his haunches, slamming his fist into the palm of his hand as if he were producing a sword, "That's all I'm asking for. You're about to leave your teammates out in the mud, no words passed between you, even though you know what's about to happen to them; all those years must have meant a lot less to you then to them, and on top of that you have the nerve to judge Fairy Tail so I wanna know gives The Rain Woman p–"

"FINE." Her outburst has been so sudden and unexpected Gray jumped out of skin, mid-rant. He collapsed back on the cot, while Juvia smoothed her hair.

"Last July, Dreyer-san, your guild master, took a trip to wine country, drank himself into a stupor, super-sized himself and stomped every grape in the winery, including those still on the vine. With that little accomplishment under his belt, he bathed in the river, leaving it dry, burned the surrounding forest and was found the next morning suckling off a cow's teat on a neighboring farm. He was hospitalized for three weeks after downing 14 gallons of raw milk and disappeared shortly after the medical bill was presented to him. Of the medical debt and property damage, not a single jewel has yet been repaid."

"Well–" Gray tried, but as he wasn't aware of this story, he faltered. He wanted to call her a liar, but that story sounded so much like Gramps. She didn't know him; there was no way she could have made it up. 

She continued. 

"A middle-aged man, Juvia can't remember his name, pasted photographs of himself – all of himself – around a small rural town populated only with women, declaring that he was plenty fertile and more than willing to change their census data for the better."

"Yes, but–" His tone held none of the conviction it did, even ten seconds ago, now. "His wife had just left him an–" 

She wasn't finished, the bluenette started counting off her fingers, "Then there was the Hargeon explosion last month, the Oshibana train station mishap – they're even considering relocating the main transportation hub to Crocus just because it's so far from Magnolia. Of course, Juvia can't forget there was a disaster by the mountain range just outside of the Guild Master's Meeting that Jose-sama attended just over a fortnight ago – something about an assassin's guild and Fairy Tail's apparent hatred of musical instruments and a very angry trio of mountain destroying monst–"

"Alright!" Gray cried, feeling oddly embarrassed at how well informed this Rain Woman turned out to be. 

It was hard to make his case when most of those incidents had made front page news in the last six months, accompanied by each individual fine, along with the guild's total debt to society…

"You asked for three." She shrugged. 

She gave more than three.

The bluenette looked entirely too triumphant, she raised her chin as if she'd just been declared Empress of Earthland.

"Smug isn't a good color on you, you're not innocent, y'know."

"Juvia never said we were innocent, just that you shouldn't be so quick to judge. We all make mistakes."

"Yeah, but you can stop yours beforehand." His brow quirked while he examined her. "You could do the decent thing and let them know." 

Her face revealed nothing.

The maker mage sighed, going back to his cookie tin.

"Captive-san, don't eat those!"

"WHY?!"

"Because Juvia brought you ice cream." She went on brightly.

Gray tossed aside the box, eye twitching while he watched the bluenette pull another box from thin air, scooting towards him with an expression that showed she was unaware of his irritation. 

"Now that your magic has returned.…" Her head tilted as a thought seemed to occur to her, "Well, Juvia isn't entirely sure how your's works…"

"I'm a maker mage." 

"Ah." 

Her face was blank, lack of understanding crystal clear. 

"Basically," He opened his palm, allowing that wonderful, familiar feeling of cool that he'd been so without for too long, to grow out towards his fingertips, watching with Juvia as a magic circle began to take shape, "I can make different figures and sculptures out of ice." 

From a cloud of white mist, a miniature version of his favorite apparition, Excalibur, began to form, slowly, for effect. 

The handle had barely appeared before she was upon him, eyes wide, mouth formed in a little ' o' , as if she were too mesmerized to remember to gasp out loud.

"You can make things?" She whispered.

The bluenette reached forward, only to pull back, as if just by touching it, she'd somehow manage to break the enchantment. 

He hadn't expected such a little thing to impress her so thoroughly, "This is nothing." 

"Why would you say that?" She looked almost hurt, like he'd put her down or something. "It's…" 

She was at a loss for words.

"I learned this from a master of maker magic," Gray explained, "and she had another pupil. He claimed to be a prodigy, and he was such a pompous ass I'd love to disagree, but his style– He can make living things – bears, birds, explosive mice – and he's insufferable about it. It's considered a more refined kind of maker magic. He can do it one handed, which isn't advisable, you'll blow yourself to the moon doing unstable magic like that, but he was willing to take the risk, and I guess… it paid off."

Gray wasn't too bitter about how things had turned out for them, he supposed deep down they both sorta got what they wanted. And as far as mental stability went, Gray felt he was leagues beyond Lyon.

But still, sometimes he could admit to himself the twinge of envy he'd felt, watching his fellow pupil make magic beyond him, even if he believed in Ur's method above anyone else. Just a few times, he'd wondered what-if. 

"What do you specialize in?" Juvia didn't seem to share any of his cynicism. She'd inched past the rune barrier, eyes locked on the little sword like it held her hypnotized. 

"Weapons mostly. I can make a wall of ice, but so can most six year olds. I've gotten a little too complacent in my own skills, I should have expanded by now. I'm sure everyone in Fiore knows of the ice wizard from Fairy Tail. It would be nice if I could hit them with something they've never seen before."

"Juvia's never seen anything like this before." She whispered with something akin to longing. 

His face felt hot for some reason, maybe because he's never had anyone gush over him so openly before.

Or at all. "I mean, we did fight on the rooftop," He chuckled, trying to push down his embarrassment, "I know it didn't last long, it wasn't really my best work up there, but you saw."

She looked up at him with a small smile, "It's one thing to see something in passing during a fight, and it was beautiful then too, but…"

"Yeah, well, I'm glad you think it's impressive."

"Juvia does!" 

"Ur – that's my old master – she used to say that no two ice wizards were the same, even twins have their own unique magical fingerprint, just like snowflakes. She also used to say the only thing that limits a maker mage is their imagination. That's why I have to learn more, to make her proud… To see just how far her teachings will take me. Maybe crave out something beyond what she ever imagined."

Juvia blinked, and Gray watched as understanding lit behind her eyes. "She died."

His throat wouldn't allow words to pass through, so he just nodded.

"And you loved her very much." 

He nodded twice as fast, mostly hoping nothing embarrassing would leak from his eyes with her so close, "Hm."

"Juvia wishes… It must be lovely to create such beautiful magic."

Gray thought back to what he knew of the Rain Woman, and he saw no reason why she couldn't learn. As a matter of fact, she could be perfectly dispositioned for it, given her relationship with water. "I could teach you."

She grasped his wrist so suddenly he almost lost focus on the magic in his palm, "Would you really?" 

"Yeah, if y'know you don't go to jail for the whole kidnapping thing–"

She burst out laughing, breaking the odd tension, for which Gray was relieved. 

"–I mean, after all that, y'know the trial, working off your sentences, yeah, I could teach you. You're good with water, learning ice magic would just be focus plus creativity, it should be a piece of cake."

"To learn this… It would make it all worth it." 

He didn't really know what she meant by that. Perhaps her magic hadn't come as naturally to her as ice had to Gray, "Was it hard, learning the water body thing?"

"No."

She didn't say a word beyond that. 

"Uh, well, the way I learned," Gray began, wanting to fill up the odd silence that had descended, watching as a shadow passed over her eyes, "it was on the Northern Continent. It's always cold there, unlike here, so getting your body adjusted to the cold temperatures that this requires, making your magic kinda call out to it, become one, that might be your biggest challenge. The weather in Oaktown and Magnolia is a bit too unpredictable, so it'll be a bit more difficult…" His voice faltered, as her mood only seemed to darken further. 

"Yes." She agreed woodenly, "The weather is rather unpredictable."

He gaped at her, unable to understand how she was so upset, so suddenly. "Did I–? Did I say something wrong? Juvi–?" 

Suddenly, she pressed a box into his chest, startling him enough to release Excalibur in a burst of tiny shards.

He landed on his back, blinking in confusion, before Gray understood what she'd passed to him. The ice cream. 

"Please keep those cold!"

Gray sat up quickly, ruffling his hair as he watched her tie knots into the ends of her own. 

What the hell –?

Placing the ice cream behind his cot with the cookie tin and unwilling to let the moment go, he said, "If you don't want to learn–"

"Juvia does, more than anything!"

She seemed genuine enough. "Well, if the problem is having me as your teacher, you c–"

"Juvia would be delighted if it were you." 

Gray scratched at his neck; no matter where he looked at it, he couldn't iron out an answer to her behavior. 

"Give me your hand."

She looked at him like he'd asked her to disrobe. 

He put out his palm, waiting for her to comply, "Our magic is kinda compatible, so maybe you could get a taste of it right now if I give you a boost, see if this is something you'd actually like to try."

Crawling back up to his cell, she placed her hand in his, "Captive-san really thinks this will work?"

"I'm just giving you a nudge," He wasn't expecting much, it's not like they were trying for something crazy, like a Unison Raid. "I know you're made of water, but can you summon some, too?"

She nodded.

He waited, expecting another magic circle, but what happened instead was something he'd never seen before. The middle of her palm seemed to expand upwards, like it was a balloon being pumped full of air. He watched, entirely nonplussed, as her hand became transparent and then the blob disconnected, leaving her hand whole and a perfect circle of water floating above it.

"Ok, now what?"

Gray cleared his throat, trying to fix his face into something that saw what she'd done as an everyday occurrence, not even worth taking a second glance.

It was harder than it should have been.

He cupped the back of her hand, trying to focus, "Now just try to accept me. You'll feel my magic in a s–"

"Oh!" 

Little patterns began to form in the sphere of water, as Gray pushed his cold upwards, freezing it as best he could. 

"Yeah, but you're keeping it liquid, see? So fight your instincts a little an– There."

For just a moment the whole thing froze, reflecting light from Gray's magic and the candlesticks around them like a prism. It spun slower, collecting and refracting the light, before bursting back into its liquid form.

It hadn't taken much magic to do it, but he'd been holding his breath without realizing it; he felt strangely winded. Inhaling deeply, he said, "We could try again, now that you understand better, we might be able to make it la–"

"Yes, absolutely."

They tried three more times, each attempt lasting longer than its predecessors. 

He was going to ask if she wanted to call it quits or maybe practice on her own, but on the fourth try, Juvia intertwined their fingers and he felt something, almost like a pull from within, at the very center of his magic. Gray was too stunned to speak, it felt like something was being reshaped, braided–

The little ball grew to the size of a small melon. 

"Why did it do that?" Juvia whispered, brows dipped, frustration clear, "Now there's some unfrozen water floating around it."

Indeed, little rivulets sparkled and dashed around delicate paths carved into an ice shell, traveling around and inside it's transparent walls. 

She looked up at him, eyes imploring, "Please be patient, Juvia is trying to keep it frozen." 

Gray shook his head. Did she not feel–?

"So. This is how I find you."

The ball exploded. 

Gray and Juvia both whipped their heads towards the end hall to find Jose Porla standing right upon them, eyes slitted and teeth bared in rage.

xGx 

Juvia ripped her hand from his immediately, jumping back as if she'd been burned by his touch. She didn't stop until she was on the far side of the corridor, her back pinned to the bars of the cell opposite his. 

Color leached from her face as if she'd been bled dry, while her eyes went wide, almost impossibly so, taking in the man standing over her.

Jose swooped down and pulled her by the nape of her shirt, some of her hair getting caught in his fist when he hauled her to her feet. " This is how I find you? " He repeated, screeching, "Giggling and simpering with Makarov's trash, are you? 

" No – ! "

" Playing footsie? " 

"Ju– Juvia wasn't –!"

"Bouncing around the guildhall like a common trollop! When I heard I didn't believe, but your audacity goes further than that even! Baring yourself before an imbecilic halfwit of Makarov's ilk?"

"Jose-sama, Juvia didn't –!"

"Did he push you to it, or was it your idea?"

"Jo–" 

He started shaking her, "Use your words!" 

"She'd be able speak if you didn't have your hands at her fucking throat!" Gray roared, slamming his hands on the barrier as if it would give way, if only for that moment. "The shirt's cutting off her air! Damn it, Jose, let her go! "

Jose rounded on him, looking ready to throw his rage Gray's way, who was more than ready to take it on, but Juvia's whimpers interrupted them, "There was no– Juvia didn't have a choice. When she'd returned, there was nothing left besides... This was all that was left. Juvia looked, she swears she did."

Jose released her and she stumbled back, eyes wet and cheeks dampened. His red-black lips were curled in disgust, "I should have known."

Her knees were shaking so hard it was a wonder they could keep her up. 

"Do you so easily forget who you are? Because a couple of ruffians steal your clothes, you just lay down and let them have it?" His eyes seemed to bulge then, as if her not immediately responding was sin reincarnated, " Well? Do you!?"  

Dark blue eyes were pinned to the floor and Gray could see from where he was that she was in something akin to shock, but her voice came out steadily, albeit quiet, "No, Master."

"I don't know where it ends with you." His voice had become equally muted, yet his words bounced off the walls, echoing his sentiment. "You continue to disappoint, prove yourself time and time again to be unteachable, unwilling to stand with pride. To present yourself as a mage worthy of…. Anything . 

Pulling out a handkerchief, Jose tossed it her way. She missed and it landed on the floor by her feet. She was so frazzled it took a few tries before she managed to pick it up. 

He sighed, "You embrace your own mediocrity, it turns my stomach, Juvia, it really does. My continued faith in you may prove fatal, not only for you and your future, but for the health of the guild in which you stand."

Juvia sniffed, but no tears fell; her hands were balled into fists as if will alone was keeping them at bay. 

"Do not step foot in this dungeon until you are presentable, do you understand me?"

"Yes, Jose-sama." 

"Short of public execution I want you to do whatever it takes to get your clothes back. And do not go whining to them," his tone took on a nasty, mocking wheeze, "like a petulant child that I told you to tell them to give them back. Behave like you belong here. Get them on your own merit."

"Yes, Jose-sama." 

"Begone from my sight." 

"Yes, Master."

"Mindless, insipid girl," He spat after her scurrying form. Only when she had left did he then turn to Gray, his brow raising when he looked him over. "And what are you doing?" 

It took a moment for the maker mage to realize he was on his feet, fists pressed against solid, frozen air and bright purple runes that disappeared and reappeared like little warning signs, breathing heavily as if he'd been in a fight. 

"Sit down, boy," Jose ordered impatiently, stalking from one end of the hall to the other, eyes still aflame, "I have some questions for you, and you will not be weaseling out of them this time. "

xGx

The quiet that had descended upon the dungeon was of the sticky, unpleasant kind that normally would have razed Gray's skin like a real flame, the discomfort so thick it felt like a living thing taking up space in his lungs, but at the moment almost felt like it was emanating from him. From the ball of black, undiluted hatred that he could feel, pumping through him like unfiltered bile.

He didn't try to shake it off, but it was competing to stay relevant to the forefront of his mind, because at the same time fear had taken a hold of his insides, and he didn't really know what to make of it. 

He preferred to hold onto the hatred.

Gray watched, seated but positioned as if he could pounce at any moment, while Jose continued his pacing, the jingle of his asinine shoes grating on the ice mage's nerves. 

At that moment, the justly vilified guild master stopped, pulled in a deep breath and asked, "How much money has Miss Lucy Heartfilia given to Fairy Tail since she became a member?" 

Gray gaped at him like he was stupid, anger momentarily forgotten. "You wanna know about our guild dues ?"

This was the third question? This was what he'd wanted to speak about?

Gray thought back to Black Steel and his kill list assignment.

What was he, taking notes? Did he need a basis to compare to in order to offer competitive rates and lure in new members? 

"Alright." Gray shrugged, now almost positive he could never be a super villain, their methods and priorities were just too odd to keep up with. 

"I mean, it's not different for Lucy," Gray began, almost mesmerized by his own befuddlement, "Officially it's 10%, that's what we agree to when we become a member. If you buy half a month's meals or more from the guild, it's pulled down to 7%. S-Class missions, Decade Quests, 100 Year Quests, and/or missions with rewards over J50,000,000 are 5%. If you're having a hard time, y'know haven't gotten work in a while, obviously Gramps is willing to work you–"

"No, you blithering idiot, I couldn't care less about that!" 

Gray pulled back, as if he'd been slapped. 

He'd let him go on like that, all that time, and he didn't even want to know–! " Then what do you want?! "

He wished this hateful old man would leave, Gray could say with no amount of sarcasm that he preferred Gajeel's company to this chuckle-head. He'd trade in a heartbeat. 

The veins in Jose's neck made a thorough appearance as the geezer spluttered so hard, the ice mage wished Juvia would have thought to ban spittle from getting through the rune barrier, too. "I want to know how much of Lucy Heartfilia's money has been given to Fairy Tail and by extension, Makarov's private crusades!" 

"..."

Jose mistook his stunned silence for something else, "Out with it boy!" He snapped, both in tone and with his fingers under Gray's nose, "The Heartfilia girl, how much wealth has Makarov extracted while she's been under his tutelage?" 

"I–" 

Gray was so inclined to lie through his teeth, to make up fairy tales, spin a deliberate web of lies that would make most story masters take notes, instead his anger got the best of him and he bit out the truth, "No one knew Lucy was rich until a week ago." 

"Preposterous." But the old man's tone wasn't as animated as it'd been a moment before, " We had her last week, you're insinuating Makarov was none the wiser until Phantom made our move?" 

"Yeah, I've been here… Six, seven days? The day I was taken, that morning was when you dumbasses showed up on our beach. That's when we found out, after Natsu brought her back and she was crying and blubbering about lying to the entire guild."

Which… Gray has been at Fairy Tail a long time, and he knew Lucy hadn't, that was the only excuse he could come up with, because omitting the fact she came from money was by far the lamest lie ever told on Fairy Tail's grounds.

Forget cracking the Top Ten, it didn't hit in the Top Ten Million.

Off the top of his head, Cana ' incorrectly ' predicting that Freed's first kiss would come only after he'd done a whiskey shot out of the belly button of his one true desire, and watching from afar while he'd followed an unsuspecting Laxus around with a shot glass and travel size bottle until the blonde boy finally lost his patience and set him flying across the hall would always be a personal favorite. 

The week Macao had paraded around a different woman every day and declared them to be Romeo's real mother, in a failed attempt to brush off his wife leaving him without a word, only to break down in slobbery, snotty tears when his son reminded him that Mama isn't blonde, also pretty memorable. 

About a month after Gray'd first joined, one of the older members, a middle-aged guy who'd left years ago now, returned from a job with a potted plant and told him, Cana and Laxus, that if they watered it everyday for three months a wish granter would be born and give them anything their heart desired. By the time those three months had passed Erza, Levy, Jet, Droy, and Natsu had all joined the guild, and were equally invested in the growth of their very own genie. 

Days were dedicated to their wishes and wording, the benefits and potential drawbacks on society that their shortsightedness could have on not only their world, but worlds they weren't even aware of yet. 

Turns out, it was basil. 

(Deep down, Gray held onto the belief that the lighting user had only chosen that medium because it guaranteed the maximum amount of pain to anyone who tried to play him for a fool in the future. As for the old man, to be honest, the ice mage wasn't 100% sure the blonde hadn't tracked the poor guy down and hunted him like a wild rabbit.)

Levy constantly read dirty novels in front of everyone. Gray wasn't sure that counted as a lie, but it sure as hell wasn't morally on the up and up. 

Makarov told people he was six foot one inch tall , all day everyday, and if that wasn't the biggest lie–!

Anyway, everyone had been kind of out it at the time, with Gramps falling ill thanks in part to the bastard standing before him, Team Shadow Gear still being in the infirmary, Erza choosing to retreat for the first time in living memory, and the guild hall still being in shambles.

Overall, morale had been at an all time low, that's why they'd let Lucy have her time sobbing it out, even when they all knew none of it was really her fault – the rift between their two guilds had been ticking for some time by then – it was just too many blows at once to take in.

That being said, again, Earthland's least noteworthy lie. 

"Look," While he couldn't say he'd made a full recovery from his shock, Gray's snark managed to pull through like it always did, "if you honestly believe Lucy paid to be in our guild, then I'm inclined to let you, because that kind of stupid doesn't just wash out with soap and water."

Jose shook his head, still unconvinced, "I know Makarov better than you. I know him and all his little tricks, his unfettered greed. A prize like that… Certainly , he knew. Was it clever of him to have her parade around like a commoner, dress like a harpy? Perhaps…" Suddenly his pacing picked up double time, words flowing from him in a rush, "That's it, isn't it? It was all an act, he made the girl perform before as a mindless little female, innocent and easily underestimated, while they mined the Heartfilia treasure trove all for themselves! That's the heart of why her father wants her back, she is pillaging the company right from under him!" Jose stilled, attention now on the ice mage, "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Maybe," Gray grunted, his irritation seeming to double rather than recede. At this point he was certain Jose hadn't been right about anything in quite a few decades, "but let me tell you something, for a rich girl – or secret rich girl, as you're so inclined to believe – she's really good at the whole poverty thing." And good thing too, because she still owed him J1600 for the three rice balls and strawberry milk tea she'd claimed she couldn't afford damn near three weeks ago now.

It would have been insensitive to demand the money back the moment they all found out she was a blue-blood, given the circumstances and violence, but the time would come and soon, it's not like he had any family back home, rolling in dough.

Gray was actually still kinda peeved that she'd turned out to be loaded… While he thought Jose's theory was about as sensible as drinking milk left out in the sun, Gray wouldn't be mad if the pair had actually managed to pull off such a heist, especially if they were willing to break him off a piece… 

But again, it was all horse shit. 

"–nd that was just when we were twelve–!"

The ice mage shook himself a little, now completely lost, "Have you been talking this whole time?"

See, the real problem with this whole interrogation scenario was, Jose liked to talk more than Gray liked to listen, so there was about a four minute window where no sound bypassed the ice mage's ear to his brain, strictly because his subconscious refused to digest even one more word from the insufferable man.

Jose ran his tongue across his teeth in irritation, the color somehow making his flesh appear unnaturally sallow, almost waxy in both texture and complexion.

He leaned forward suddenly, startling Gray, "Be honest now," In a strange turn of events, the old man's tone had taken on an almost honeyed lit to it, "would you consider yourself… a well-informed member of your guild?"

Gray paused, like he was stumped by the question, and in truth, he sort of was; it had come out of left field. 

"Let me rephrase," the old man lifted a hand, as if to stop him from answering, though the ice mage was still a little too dumbstruck to give a reply yet, "When new, world changing information is presented to Makarov, are you the first pair of ears he turns to?"

Again, Gray was quiet.

Jose nodded, "Certainly, but you must be the second?"

Discomfort began to twist at his stomach, but he couldn't understand where it was coming from; he was no more afraid than he'd been when he'd first met Phantom's master.

A sardonic smile graced Jose's lips, his dull ruby eyes remaining cold, "Third?" 

Gray shook his head.

"I didn't think so," the old man breathed. He spun on the sole of silly, curly-toed shoes, mood seeming to sour as the seconds ticked on, "We're done here."

Gray watched him go as far as his position would allow, internally debating calling the geezer back. What held his tongue was the worry still wriggling in his gut, the fact he couldn't identify what was causing it.

He wasn't worried for himself – far from it, now that his health had returned to about 90% he was well and truly ready to fight his way to freedom.

For a moment he considered Lucy – Jose had come all the way down here just to discuss her after all, certainly there must be something there? 

But again, he was able to dismiss the idea, Lucy was nowhere near them, she was probably so far removed from danger at the moment, her kidnapping could be considered an old nightmare by now. Even if she somehow managed to stumble across Phantom Lord's mindless trek around Fiore, he doubted she'd do it alone. And with the rest of the guild behind her, honestly Gray would feel a little worried for Juvia and the rest–

His stomach dipped again.

Juvia? That's what he was worried about?

A part of him wanted to remain dismissive, it would be nice if some of his snark reared it's head again, but he knew, not even deep down, that it was her that had his stomach in knots. That they'd been that way since she'd left, scurrying around her own guild master like he was a live mine. 

After the way he'd treated her… 

Gray was still in a sort of suspended disbelief that he'd witnessed that. That she didn't fight back. 

That she'd left, and intended to return. 

To continue doing the bidding of a man who would rough handle her like that, purposely humiliate her.

No, he didn't have to wonder any longer why his stomach was behaving the way it was. 

But even before that had happened…. It was an odd thing to come to terms with, but the more time he spent with the bluenette, the more concern he began to feel.

And not for himself anymore, he'd moved well past fearing that Juvia's intent was to harm him. Rather, he found himself wanting to look out for her; his mind often wandered, deeply concerned about her well-being when she was out of sight.

There was no real way to explain it, but every time he was left to himself after interacting with her, he became more and more convinced that Juvia didn't belong here.

Whatever path Phantom planned on taking, perhaps darker than anything they were known for in the past, was at odds with the rain woman Gray was starting to get to know.

It was almost like she was in a poisonous fog, and because she had no knowledge of anything outside of it, she began to embrace it, even while it was choking the life out of her.

On paper, his distress made no sense. 

He knew for a fact, Juvia was the one who'd brought him here, and based on the tidbits he'd pieced together from the others, she'd made that decision unilaterally and impulsively.

The rest of the guild seemed to be stuck, piecing together how to make his being here useful and to their advantage.

But truth be told, he felt no direct animosity towards her anymore.

Not in the way his blood ran ice cold, wanting to call on his magic more than ever, when Jose bothered to show up, grandstanding even when Gray could see he was floundering for an actual plan of success. 

Not like the dismissive anger he'd felt each time Gajeel Redfox made an appearance. 

Maybe it was because he knew, if she were so inclined, she could have really hurt him, but instead treated him with open consideration and compassion that exposed a more sweet-tempered person underneath the terrifying reputation that swirled around her. 

Or maybe it was just her eyes.

He didn't have words for all that he saw there when she wasn't speaking, but he saw a lot… 

Then again, it could be that he was just an idiot, wanting to believe there was something more under the surface. 

Sure they'd shared a moment before, but… 

He could very well be playing directly into her hand; maybe she was the brains behind this whole operation, using kindness and faux vulnerability to pull at his heartstrings for her own gain.

There were only two problems with this theory that nearly made it unfeasible. 

Number 1: As Jose had quietly summarized before, Gray was damn near an empty vessel, a grunt if you will. He didn't know much about his guild – not the inner workings and secrets that is – that couldn't easily be found via a trip to the local library. There were far more valuable members who could have supplied that information; if that's what she genuinely wanted when she'd cornered him that day, she should have known to point her resources elsewhere. 

But even more importantly than that was Number 2: it was really hard to fake that kind of unvarnished loneliness. 

Her eyes weren't lying about that, at least…

xGx

Juvia returned about an hour later, fully dressed in the same style of clothes he'd met her in, not an inch of skin visible beyond her hands and face. A tall, fur trimmed hat covered her ears and upper forehead, and her hair had gone back to the stiff coiffure at her shoulders. Just like before, it remained completely unmoved, even as she stooped down and sat on the floor before him.

Her face was oddly vacant, or rather, her eyes were. They were blank, not quite hollow, as if she'd caught a glimpse of something supernatural, but hadn't seen enough to know for sure if she should be frightened. 

She smiled, but it was robotic, not meeting her eyes. Lifting her arms up, Gray noticed she was carrying something.

More food.

"Juvia has made soup." She began, placing the bowl and utensils before his cot along with a cup and jug. "Unfortunately it's rather simple this time: mushrooms, spinach, a bit of green onion, and the last of the miso paste. And there's only water in there," She motioned to the jug, "Juvia cannot apologize more for the humble meal."

She was always apologizing, "It's fine, lis–"

"Earlier… she made a rather silly miscalculation with the ingredients, and now Juvia fears there won't be enough for you to eat tonight. Tomorrow… Heavens, there isn't even any dessert!" She lifted the tray then, as if hoping a bowl of pudding would materialize from thin air beneath it, and soothe her woes. 

Gray huffed, trying to keep the gut feeling prickling his under skin from showing on his face, "I still have cookies, there's ice cream, look–"

"Well, Juvia supposed there's ice cream left," She muttered distantly; not like she was agreeing with him, more like the thought had suddenly occurred to her, "but as we're all out of – well almost everything – this is the best Juvia could scrap together… If we could just come across a market, but in the middle of Worth Woodsea, the odds are not good… Please," She motioned him urgently, "eat while it's hot, it's best that way."

She never paused, it was like she couldn't even hear him.

Gray ignored the food, scooting right up to the rune wall, "Did you run into Jose while you were up there?"

She blinked, but no clarity came to her eyes, "No."

"Did he bump into you ?" 

She shook her head, then her chin dropped like a limp doll and her gaze landed on his soup, "Captive-san should eat while it's hot."

Gray swallowed something that felt a lot like panic, "Juvia, you're scaring me."

"Juvia never means to frighten," Her head tilted, but he noticed some life had returned just then, a little color, "Jose-sama was right to reprimand her, it's just… Juvia doesn't always handle it well. But he was right, Juvia forgot who she was…"

He let the silence hang for a moment, until he couldn't handle it anymore, "Did your guildmates really steal your clothes?"

More color bloomed on her cheeks, though this appeared to have more to do with embarrassment than life. 

Gray knew better than to compare this to his experiences at Fairy Tail, instinctively. While pranks were a common occurrence there, stealing someone's else's clothes being one of the milder ones he could think of, there was a rather prominent unspoken rule in their pranks, not spoken aloud simply because it was so obvious. 

No one was going to come running into the guildhall screaming Igneel was outside, waiting for Natsu. 

Because that would be a shitty thing to do, knowing how much the pinkette loved and missed his dragon dad. 

Fairy Tail never had to sit down, all together, and remind everyone that unnecessarily cruel, psychological warfare was not allowed when pulling pranks. 

Whether of her own volition, or more likely, Jose's needling her, Juvia did not seem at all comfortable with her body. So taking her clothes and forcing her to run around the whole guild, doing her duties in nothing more than an oversized shirt – that was a shitty thing to do. That was unnecessarily cruel.

It had nothing to do with whether Gray or anyone else thought she was plenty covered, it was clear the bluenette hadn't been comfortable. And if he had to guess, her guildmates had known her long enough to know just how much it would mess with her. Just how unkind Jose would be when he saw her.

The ice mage watched while Juvia's fingers pulled down her coat, over an already covered knee. 

She tilted her chin, then, "The soup."

The maker mage lifted his spoon, but that was only so he'd have something to strangle. 

"Did Black Steel know?" If that skulking son of a bitch has anything to do with it, Gray would gladly come up with some pretty creative forms of punishment. But Juvia shook her head, almost amused.

"If Gajeel-kun found out, he would…" Her eyes roamed the ceiling as if looking for the right word to describe the dragon slayer's penchant for violence, "...not be nice."

"Because… this happens often." He'd intended it to be a question, but quickly realized it was a statement of fact. "The people here, they treat you like shit. Call you names."

Her lashes fluttered, dark eyes seeming to swallow the rest of her face, while she watched him mutely, clearly horrified. 

"They call you a freak, among other things." 

He'd let the moment slide earlier, but he did clock it, and he was sure it wasn't simply a coincidence that she had such a sensitivity to mild name-calling.

A few days ago, when he'd first arrived, Gray had joked to himself that Juvia shouldn't bother staying down here with him, watching like a hawk, instead she should spend time with her friends, didn't they miss her? It hadn't occurred to him that she may not have any friends upstairs waiting for her.

She looked so uncomfortable he wanted to change the subject. Instead he asked, "With your clothes, what about your group, the Element Four, wouldn't they have something to say about it? Make those other guys pay?" 

Her lips moved but no sound came out and Gray realized with a start that either no she couldn't depend on them to defend her, or worse, they were some of the ones who had taken them in the first place. 

Her expression turned evasive, "They're still on the mend, Juvia couldn't ask…"

Right. 

She couldn't ask them for help.

Funny. Because, over the last six days and nights, people came down here time and time again, but they never seemed to be there for Juvia, rather they came down because they'd needed something from her. That, or they were forced to pass on information and instructions. 

The only person who seemed to come down purely because they wanted to spend time with Juvia was Gajeel. 

Gray shook his head, determined to rid himself of the sinking feeling his stomach had descended into. Maybe he was misreading this. Maybe a couple members were mad at being stuck in the guild, and were blaming her right now, giving her the cold shoulder, but on the daily they were thick as thieves.

Maybe Gray was just sitting in the midst of one their rough patches, but they'd all move on together, stronger than e–