"Gray-sama!" Juvia Lockster yelled with hearts in her eyes as she latched onto Gray Fullbuster's left arm. "Welcome back!" She looked up at him with a smile but it faulted when she saw his face. He glared down at her as he ripped his arm from her loosened grasp. "Would you quit it already? Why the hell do you keep being an obsessive freak when I clearly don't have an interest in you. All you're doing is being annoying and getting in the way!" Gray yelled at the stunned water mage as he turned and walked into the guild.

Juvia stood there as she thought about what he said, oblivious to the tears streaming down her face. 'Juvia's a freak? Juvia is in the way?' She felt her heart shatter as rain started to fall upon the town. "ICE MAKE: HAMMER!" Her thoughts were broken when she heard Gray's voice drifting from inside. She looked around, finally noticing the rain that had began to fall; she touches her cheek where she feels warm tears mixing with the cool rain.

Knowing that she wouldn't be able to show her face in the guild, she starts walking away with her head to the pavement below her. People around her have umbrellas and are trying to get to their warm, dry homes. She couldn't go home. Not without everyone seeing how pathetic she looks. 'Besides, no one would want Juvia there. This is something so silly.'

Juvia continues walking until she hits the edge of the forest. After a moment's hesitation, she walks into the forest. She ducks under branches and walks through mud that start getting on the edges of her long blue slitted dress and her thigh high boots. Seeing a large tree just ahead, she quickens her pace and reaches the clearing that the tree is in the center of. She collapses on the tree with her head resting on her arms and she finally lets out her emotions. The rain picks up into a downpour as her sobs seem to echo in the forest.

"Hey, I'm going home." Bickslow said as he stood up from Raijinshuu's regular table. "Same." Laxus stood up from the table as well and they headed out of the guild. It was late and pretty much everyone had gone home already. When Laxus stepped outside, he paused as he felt the heavy rain soak his coat in a matter of seconds. What confused him was that he hadn't smelt a storm coming. He wracked his head trying to find a reason why it would just start raining suddenly. He only came up with one reason.

Juvia Lockster.

He had been told about her time during Phantom Lord and how it would rain whenever she was around. He's also seen that when she would get really upset, it would start to lightly rain.

He started making his way to his house in the woods. Ice Princess would take care of her. No matter how upset she is, he always cheers her up. With that thought, he entered the forest but paused when he smelled something. Double checking, he sniffed the air again. He smelled tears and Juvia nearby. He shuffled his way through the forest that he had long-since memorized, closer to the source of the scents.

After about 10 to 15 minutes of walking, he came across a clearing and froze. He could see Juvia lying on the tree roots, her wracked with sobs that seemed to echo throughout the clearing. He was most certainly worried by now. He was pissed at whoever had upset his usually cheerful water mage guildmate. He growled lowly. Where the hell is Ice Princess? Why didn't she go to him or even Lucy? Shaking his head, he made his way to the distressed woman and knelt beside her.

"Juvia? What happened?" He asked quietly but loud enough to be heard over the storm. Lightning flashed across the sky, seeming to try and comfort the rain that pounded on the earth. Hearing her name, her head shot up in surprise. She quickly wiped her face with her already soaked sleeves, attempting to hide the fact that she was crying. "Laxus-san. What are you doing here?" She asked, her voice thick from her sobs and runny nose. "I could ask you the same thing. What's wrong?" Laxus asked again and Juvia looked down.

"Nothing. Juvia's fine." She lied quite obviously. Even she knew that he wouldn't believe her in a million years. She just hoped he'd drop it. "Bullshit." Laxus said evenly and sat down on a tree root right next to her. "I'm not leaving unless you tell me what's going on." He stubbornly said to her despair. "Why would you even care? Juvia is an obsessive freak and only gets in the way." Juvia sadly muttered to Laxus's surprise and tears made their way down her cheeks once more.

Juvia looked down into her lap as she waited for him to leave. She jumped when she felt him lift her chin up to face him. Her eyes widened when she saw the hard yet at the same time soft storm blue eyes looking at her. "You are not an obsessive freak. Yeah sure you went a little beyond loving someone, but definantly not a freak. Also, you don't get in the way. You are a powerful mage that has saved many lives. You have never gotten in the way. Why would you even think that?" He was baffled why she thought that. Someone must've said that to her if she was upset like this. Who though?

"Gray told Juvia that she was an obsessive freak that always got in the way when he got back from his mission. Juvia had just welcomed him home." She sniffed as she looked down now that her chin wasn't being held. Laxus growled angerly. That stupid ice bastard. Why in the hell would he say something like that? I'm gonna kill him for hurting not only the woman who loves him deeply, but a fellow guildmate that didn't deserve it. He thought bitterly. "It's fine though. Juvia will be fine. Juvia will just get stronger so she won't be in the way and get over Gray-san. There is no reason to chase a man who won't love Juvia back." She said with a bitter smile.

Laxus's eyes widened as he stared at the woman in front of him. Did she seriously say that? Juvia? She's giving up on Ice Princess? Well, I can see why. "If you want to give up on him, I won't tell you not to. He clearly hurt you." He stated and Juvia cringed slightly. "Personally, I think it's a good thing you're going to stop chasing after him. You would've ended up having a lonely life. I'm sorry but he wouldn't have loved you back. He loves someone else." Her eyes widened and she wracked her memory for who it could be. Only one person really made sense. "Lo- Lucy-san?" She corrected herself. She wasn't love rival anymore. She didn't stand a chance anymore and she was accepting that.

The dragon slayer nodded while judging her reaction. She smiled softly. "I think that they would be good for each other. Lucy-san is the light of the guild, but even she has darkness in her heart. Same with Gray-san. With what happened with his teacher, Ul, having someone like Lucy would be good for him. I always knew Lucy-san liked Gray-san." She joked lightly as the rain was getting lighter. The lightning had gone away a while ago, so now it was just a nice shower. It wasn't heavy anymore but it was still raining a lot.

He nodded and his lips curved into a small smile as he noticed how mature she was being and that she was considering both of their happiness. "Yeah. Well, come on. I like the rain and all, but if we stay out here for too much longer, you're going to get sick." He said lightly as he stood up and held his hand out to the surprised water woman. He did like the rain. However, his clothes were getting heavy and uncomfortable. He also wanted a shower. Badly.

She gently took his hand and he helped her up. He let go of her hand and she took a step forward. As soon as her foot hit the ground, her knee buckled and she started to fall forward. She closed her eyes and waited to hit the ground when she felt herself being lifted by two strong arms. She opened her eyes and was met with the concerned blue eyes of a certain dragon slayer. "Thank you. Juvia's legs must've gone numb. Juvia apologizes." She mumbled embarrassed. "It's fine. It just means that we really should get out of the rain." He said as she felt herself being pulled against his warm chest.

"You might want to hold on. You're going to feel a tingle alright?" Before she could think about what he said, she felt him summon forth some of his magic. The air around them crackled and she felt a tingle run over her skin before she felt as if she were at two places at once. It made her stomach churn and she felt as if she was going to get sick until the feeling was gone and she found them standing on a porch. "You know, Juvia would appreciate it if you would've told her that you were going to use your lightning teleportation. You about made Juvia sick." She lightly scolded as he walked inside what she assumed was his house.

The house's color scheme was mainly black with yellow accents. It just seemed to fit Laxus. "Sorry. Forgot that it could. Ever yelled at me about the same thing after she had gotten sick the first time. She's gotten used to it now so I forgot." He said as he made his way past what must've been the living room and into his bedroom. He set her down on the bed so she was sitting and made his way to his closet. On his way, he shrugged his soaked fur-lined coat and tossed it into a basket. He grabbed a black long-sleeved shirt and tossed it to her. She caught it and looked at it in confusion.

"I figured you'd want to take a shower and my pants wouldn't fit you. It's all I can help you with. I got nothing for undergarments. You can go ahead and take a shower in the bathroom right there." He pointed to a door about two yards away from the bed. "There are towels in there that you can use." She nodded and carefully put weight on her legs, testing to see if she could walk on her own. Seeing that her legs could support her weight, she fully stood up and carefully made her way to the bathroom.

Making it inside, she closed the door behind her and looked around. The bathroom had a large bathtub with a shower attached, a toilet next to the tub and a long counter with a sink. It was very nice and the floor was a black marble along with counter. The shower curtains were yellow along with a towel that was hanging by the tub. It was neat and organized. She went over to the tub and turned on the hot water and waited a minute for the water to heat up. Once it did, she turned the cold water on and got it to the perfect temperature and changed it to the shower setting before peeling off her soaked dress, hat and boots.

She stepped into the shower and sighed in bliss as the warm water hit her chilled body and soothed her muscles. She then looked through the bottles that were sitting on a shelf next to her and quickly found the shampoo. Filling her palm with the liquid, she curiously smelled it and smiled. It smelled like cologne and she liked it. A lot. She then lathered her hair with the shampoo before rinsing all the bubbles and soap out. She then did the same with the conditioner, but she didn't rinse it right away. She washed her body with his body wash and then rinsed her hair until she was satisfied that all the soap was out of her hair and that her body was bubble-free.

Turning off the water, she stepped out and used the towel next to the tub to dry her body before wrapping her hair with the towel. She then folded her soaked clothes and was thankful for the small blessing. Her undergarments were virtually dry. A little damp, but that was mainly her bra. She quickly put the black shirt on and giggled quietly when she noticed that the shirt went down to just above her knees and the sleeves went passed her hands.

Setting her soaked clothes on the counter by the wall so they were out of the way, she opened the cabinet under the sink and found a few towels. She pulled out a large black towel and hung it up by the towel for when Laxus took a shower because she knew he wanted one. Satisfied and in a much better mood, she left the bathroom and back into the bedroom where Laxus was laying on his bed. What made her pause was the fact that he was shirtless. She would be telling the biggest lie if she said that he wasn't fine and that she almost drooled at sight of his hard muscles and his tribal tattoo.

Shaking her head to get rid of her current train of thought before it got out of hand, she started unwrapping her hair. "Your turn. Juvia left her clothes on the counter so they wouldn't get anything wet and she also put a new towel by the tub for you." She said and then made her way for the bedroom door that would get her to the living room. "Where are you going?" Laxus asked as he saw Juvia make her towards the door. She looked at him a bit confused. "I'm going to the couch to sleep." She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He blinked before he chuckled.

"You don't gotta sleep in the living room. You can sleep here." He said gesturing to the bed with a soft black blanket and black pillows with yellow lightning bolts. She blushed bright red and shook her head. "No. Juvia doesn't want to take your bed. It's your bed, so you should sleep in it. Juvia will sleep on the couch; Juvia does not care." She stuttered out as he stood up and grabbed some clothes from his closet.

"I don't care. Sleep in here." He insisted before grabbing the towel she was now holding and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. She blinked a couple of times before she sighed and made her way to the very inviting bed. She was too tired to argue anymore. She lied down and curled up under the very warm and soft blanket before she quickly fell asleep. She knew that her life was going to be very different now. However, she didn't think that it would be a bad thing. She would just have to wait and see for herself.