Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Mashima Hiro & Kodansha.

SOMETHING AMISS

It's just another day in the Fairy Tail guild headquarters. Wait, no, it's not! Everyone was acting weird — really weird.

It started fine when Juvia was on her way to the guild. She met up with Gajeel halfway. She greeted him, and he greeted her back with a compliment.

"Lookin' as fine as always, ame-onna!"

Giggling, Juvia playfully hit him on the arm. Once in a while, Gajeel's sweet nature can come out. "And Gajeel-kun is looking pretty good too. No wonder Levy-chan is so into you," she teased, eliciting a deep blush on the iron dragon slayer's cheeks.

Before opening the guild doors, they met Laxus who only gave Gajeel a nod. He turned to Juvia and gave her a stiff smile, "Good morning, Ms. Lockser. Your sweet scent fills the air, which gives me the strength to go through this day."

Juvia slightly frowned, unable to fathom why Laxus was giving her such a compliment today. She glanced up at Gajeel who didn't seem at all disturbed with Laxus's unusual praise. With a shrug, she didn't think much of it. She proceeded to thank Laxus and wished him to have a good day as well.

As soon as they entered the building, they were met with greetings. Nothing unusual there! Although... strangely, no one was bantering or fighting. Still, every once a while, the guild can be quiet and peaceful.

Juvia moved her eyes around and saw her Gray-sama sitting with all Team Natsu. Erza was eating cake. Happy munched on a piece of fish. Lucy was scolding Natsu for whatever reason. Wendy was brushing Carla's fur. And Gray? Well, he sat lazily with a very bored expression. His eyes settled on Juvia, who completely turned red. Juvia itched to march towards her dream lover, pounce on him with a tight hug, and make love to him right there and then to make fifty babies. But of course, she restrained herself. She followed Gajeel instead and both made their way to a table where Levy sat.

As they passed by their guildmates, the Juvia-compliments started pouring in. The water mage accepted it graciously at first, but she soon felt uneasy. What was happening?

"Oh, Juvia-chan, your beautiful blue hair matches no other."

"Wow, those curvaceous hips of yours are so magnetizing."

"Your blue eyes light up the room and make everything clearer for me to see."

"I glorify the very ground you walk upon!"

"Talk dirty to me, you coquettish mage."

Juvia's head snapped at each direction the flattery was coming from. She eyed Gajeel and Levy, but the two didn't seem perturbed by what was happening. Her gaze then travelled to her other guildmates, but no one was puzzled like she was.

"Gajeel-kun," she muttered her friend's name under her breath. "Why are all the men complimenting Juvia today?"

Gajeel cleared his throat. "Cause a rain goddess like you deserves all this praise."

When Master Makarov descended the stairs, he greeted everybody with a hello. His first words to Juvia however left her mouth hanging open. "Ah, your ample bosom simply accentuates your natural beauty, Juvia-chan."

Pervy words from a pervy old geezer! Gray scowled. The discomfort shown on Juvia's face was enough to anger him. He wasn't sure what was happening to everyone — well, specifically to all the males in the guild. They showered Juvia with compliments, some were borderline inappropriate. Gray, it seemed, was the only exception. He clenched his fists to control his anger. He hated that the water mage was on the verge of crying.

The last straw finally came when Natsu stood from his seat and approached the bluenette.

Once he stood in front of Juvia, the water mage turned to him slowly and nervously. Natsu stood stiffly. In a robotic and monotonic manner, he loudly declared to her, "Your-soft-lips-are-de-tec-ta-ble." Happy pulled his ear and whispered something. "I mean, de-lec-ta-ble!" He said this as if he was reading from a script.

"Please-ho-nour-me-with-a-fa-shion-a-ble..." he looked at his palm, "Passion-ate kiss."

Natsu took a step closer, and Juvia leaned backward, trying to create more distance. The fire dragon slayer protruded his lips.

"That's it!" Gray stood up. With three huge strides, he was already blocking Natsu's mouth from placing a wet one on the water mage's lips. "What the hell is going on with you, fire-crotch?!"

As if by prompt, all the males chanted (more like pleaded!) for Juvia to give them a kiss. Juvia, in all commotion, didn't even realize that her Gray-sama stood in front of her with a protective arm placed on her shoulder. Swiftly, she stood from her seat and made a dash for the door.

She couldn't help but felt harassed. She craved for her guildmates to love her as a comrade, but today was just too much. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she wiped it with her sleeves. Suddenly, she felt a strong grip on her wrist.

"Juvia."

Juvia was afraid to look, but the voice indicated it was Gray. "Is everybody playing a trick on Juvia? Or, did all the men fall in love with Juvia? That's not fair, Gray-sama! Juvia only wants Gray-sama, and yet..." she cut off her sentence. "What is happening, Gray-sama?" she asked in a low breath.

"I don't know," Gray admitted, wiping the tears streaming down her face. "But I don't like it." Juvia looked up to him, confused. "I mean, you are worthy of all the compliments. You do, but I hate that it's coming from another guy's lips."

"Gray-sama?"

"I should be the only one to say those things to you. Others can admire from afar, but they're not allowed to say it out loud."

He brushed her lips with his thumb, and then leaned down. Juvia met his lips halfway. Soft and gentle, but at the same time completely electrifying. Juvia curled her toes inside her boots. Gray felt soothing warmth enveloped his lower body.

"Don't you ever let that flame-breath touch your lips," he said with a growl.

-##-

The following day...

Opening the doors cautiously, Gray snapped his head from side to side. He needed to make sure the perverts he calls 'comrades' weren't acting suspicious anymore.

"Is it back to normal now, Gray-sama?" a blob of blue hair peeked out from behind Gray, dainty fingers tightly clutching the sides of his coat. She looked up to see Gray's expression, who's acting very warily as if he's the water mage's bodyguard.

"Juvia, stay behind me until I give you the go-signal." He gently pushed back the bluenette's head. With her petite frame, Gray's body covered her completely.

Elfman passed by, and Gray was already in a defensive stance. "Yo Gray, what's up man?"

"Stay away!" Gray warned, with his hands up in the air as if ready to give the burly figure a karate chop. Elfman just shrugged and walked away. Soon, everyone was greeting him and Juvia, like they would normally do. In fact, too normal, which befuddled both ice and water mage.

"Gray-sama," whispered Juvia. "I think it's safe for me to come out." Gray did one more sweep around the guild with his eyes. He knew he probably looked ridiculous acting like Juvia's security escort.

As he was about to give his girl the go-ahead signal, Natsu approached them with a big smile. Instantly, warning flags and loud alarm sounds went off in his head. Gray outstretched his arms, standing rigidly with his back straight, his body totally concealing his water mage. If he was a wolf, he would already be growling. If he was a lion, he'd be roaring.

"Stay away, burn-breath. We don't want your stink around," he snarled at the fire user. Though his words were childish, Gray had an imposing demeanour. It was enough to make Natsu cower a bit, but he had a facade to maintain.

"Hello to you, too, ice cube," Natsu gave Gray a salute to further grate his nerves. He bent sideways to get a quick look of the maiden behind Gray's white coat. It was amazing the dude had kept his clothes on up to this point! "Hey Juvia, how are you?" he greeted her with nonchalance, as if he didn't spout unusual words the previous day.

Juvia gave him an awkward laugh, not sure how to react to Natsu. Gray moved to cover her once again. "I said stay away, flame-brain!" he pointed to him, and then proceeded to point to everyone else. With the loudest voice he can muster, he declared on top of his lungs the words Juvia longed to hear.

"JUVIA IS MINE! NO ONE, AND WHEN I SAY NO ONE, I MEAN ALL THE MEN HERE, IS ALLOWED TO TOUCH HER," Gray redirects his ire towards a certain fire dragon slayer and continues his tirade, "AND NO ONE CAN KISS HER EXCEPT FOR ME. UNDERSTOOD?"

Everyone just meekly nodded, even Natsu who just walked away. The guild was silent for a few moments, and then everything went back to normal. Gray stood there like a statue but maintained his hawk-eye glares at all the men. Juvia tugged on the sleeve of his coat.

"Gray-sama?"

Gray looked at her with a smile. He bent down to meet her lips. He didn't care about the onlookers anymore. He claimed her lips for everyone to see. Juvia squeaked at the surprise deed but loved it.

Unbeknownst to the couple at the far end of the building sat a brown-haired drunkard, snickering loudly.

"Mira-san, gotta hand it to your matchmaking skills!" snorted Cana, playfully hitting the model-esque mage in front of her. "Wait, from now on, I should call you 'Mira-sensei'. You're the master at the art of pranks and wild set-ups!"

Mirajane bowed down, proud of her recent achievement. Yes, she set the whole thing up. It took all her powers to convince every single mage in the guild, including Master Makarov, to play along with her plan. Heck, she even had to deploy scary tactics to get Natsu to speak those words (albeit the pink-haired dude nearly screwed it up with his monotonous speech). Either way, the plan was successful. Gray took the bite.

"That's one couple down. More to go..." a sinister smile played across the face of the silver-haired beauty.

A/N: I'm not very good when it comes to producing humour. This is my attempt. And although I can't say I'm completely happy with the end product, I think I was able to write the scenario I created in my head. (It was funnier in my head though... It didn't really translate well in print. :( I gravitate towards drama and angst more.) Still, I hope everyone who read it enjoyed it a bit. I love Juvia and she deserves all the praises and compliments!