AN: Yay, my first reviews! Thanks everyone for the favourites, follows and reviews!

There's a poll up on my profile for the best ship name for this pairing, if anyone's interested.

Blackberry: Yup, I'll keep this up, for as long as I have readers to satisfy. :3

Juvia was okay. At least, that's what she had been telling herself, and that combined with the fact that she was going on a mission with her friend Lucy Heartfilia had caused Juvia to perk right up. Their mission was to retrieve an ancient treasure that was believed to be in the wreckage of a sunken ship, which came with a neat reward of 500,000 Jewels. Juvia presumed that Lucy had chosen the mission because of the time they would spend underwater, which was probably an attempt by Lucy to make the job more exciting to Juvia. As Juvia grew more and more excited, she admitted to herself that Lucy's attempt wasn't in vain.

The two friends sat next to each other in the back of the carriage, bumping around as it travelled over the rocky road. They were heading to a closed off area by the ocean, away from any town and village. Apparently the requester was a hermit. Juvia looked out the window at the pristine blue sea as the sun shone just over the horizon, casting an extremely bright light onto the water, which reflected back up into the sky and the water mage's eyes. It was a truly beautiful sight, but then again, that was mostly because the water was a truly beautiful thing.

Lucy had convinced Juvia that Cinda joining wasn't the end of the world. She said that if Gray truly loved Juvia – which Juvia knew he did – then it didn't matter if other women would appear, because Gray's love, like Juvia's, would be unfaltering and infinite. Juvia was amazed by the optimistic look Lucy had on the matter. It seemed that the blonde would be an expert on dating, so Juvia didn't understand how Lucy had never dated anyone.

Lucy was a beautiful, stunning young woman, with a great personality and an attractive figure. She could have any man in Fiore she wanted! So why was she single? Had Lucy just not found 'the one' yet, like Juvia had? She and everyone else had believed it to be Natsu, but as Juvia conversed with the celestial spirit mage, she found it hard to believe that someone so intelligent like Lucy could possibly form a romantic relationship with the idiot Natsu was.

Juvia admitted, perhaps Gray wasn't the brightest tool in the shed either, but he was most definitely smarter than the flame-brained dragon slayer.

"Looks like we're here." Lucy noted as the carriage slowed to a halt, the two mages leaving after paying the fare. As they approached the cosy wooden cabin, Juvia couldn't help but be in awe at how beautiful it was. Unfortunately, its beauty would go unappreciated, as the requester lived in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps he was an old hermit of a man then, Juvia thought. But regardless, he had good taste, judging from the ocean he decided to plop the house down next to.

After knocking the door, it opened almost instantly, revealing a young male with short spiky red hair and streaks of neon orange running through. He grinned as he saw the two women, opening the door widely and beckoning them to come in.

"Lucy Heartfilia and Juvia Lockser of Fairy Tail." He remarked as he walked into what looked to be a kitchen area. Juvia's eyes scanned the room. It seemed that the kitchen, living room and dining room were all blended into one, with only two other doors in the house.

"I watched you in the Grand Magic Games, you were both amazing! Can I make you ladies anything to drink?" He asked as he rummaged through a cupboard. "I want to talk to you about the job, so you'll have time for one." He waved his free hand to the settees, gesturing for them to sit.

"I'll have a coffee, please." Lucy accepted.

"Juvia will have one too, thank you."

As he made the coffees, Juvia and Lucy made themselves comfortable in the low-seated settees he had. They were of nice design – the whole place was, in Juvia's view. The man clearly had good taste.

"You have a nice house." Juvia complimented as he approached with two steaming mugs. He laid them down on the table, taking a seat on the opposite side.

"Thanks." He said. "You're the first to say so. Although that's probably because you're the first people I've had over."

"Why is that?" Juvia asked. "Such a beautiful house, surely one would want to show off their superior taste?"

"I don't have many friends." He admitted. "Plus, I don't want people around here much. This is my training ground, too."

"Oh? What are you training for?" Lucy asked, sipping her coffee.

"Well, you know that girl from the Magic Games, Chelia, the sky god slayer?" He asked.

Lucy and Juvia both nodded. He laughed then. "Of course you know who I'm talking about. You were both there after all. It really is nice to meet you both."

"It's nice to meet you too…" Lucy said. "Err…."

"Oranet." He answered. "Anyway, that Chelia, she learned the god slayer magic from a book, didn't she?"

"That's right." Lucy confirmed.

"That's what I wish to do. The only problem is, however, the book is rare."

"That is a big problem." Juvia commented.

Oranet stood and walked to a bookshelf, retrieving a map. He laid it down on the table, before pointing at an X he had clearly marked on earlier. "There was a boat that set off from here a few years ago. It was going to travel here, but it never arrived." He said, pointing to several different points on the map as he spoke. "After a lot of research, I've found out that it was transporting books as it's main cargo, mostly fiction."

Juvia caught Lucy's eyes gleam. Of course, the avid reader and writer was likely all to pleased to hear that they would soon be surrounded by books. Wet, soggy, underwater books, but books nevertheless.

"However, after that, a certain book was missing from its owner. The 'God Slayer Magic' book. I believe it's still on that boat, just waiting to be found." He grew excited as he spoke. "My mission for you is to retrieve that book."

"But it'll be ruined by the water." Lucy said. "You can't read a book that's been underwater for years…"

"You can if it hasn't been exposed to water." He laughed. "It's rare, so my guess is they would have kept it locked up somewhere, likely in some sort of safe."

"Juvia is perhaps just being curious, but what god slayer magic do you intend on learning?"

"I'm going to be an earth god slayer." He said. "The land around here needs some terraforming. I'm going to make it look good."

Juvia smiled. She agreed; a beautiful house should have a beautiful landscape to go with it.

Juvia and Lucy soon left the house, after Oranet had finished babbling on about how he was going to turn his whole section of land into a work of art. Juvia and Lucy had since entered the ocean and began their search. Since the ship could have sunk at any point between the two landmasses, they had a lot of searching to do.

With the vast area to cover, Juvia knew it would be more efficient to have multiple search parties, but unfortunately, Lucy had to remain with Juvia at all times. The water bubble allowing Lucy to breathe would disappear if they got too far apart, so Lucy held onto Juvia's back as the two swum together.

Aquarius could have helped, but Lucy didn't seem to keen on summoning that certain celestial spirit. It seemed that Lucy only called out Aquarius in the direst of circumstances.

As Juvia swam, her mind was plagued with a certain thought. God slayer magic. More specifically, water god slayer magic. If Juvia had that book for herself, she could learn water god slayer magic and surpass Cinda with ease. She had been thinking it since he mentioned that book, and now, as she was swimming in search of it, she couldn't help but want it for herself. She would never learn it in time for the Lovers' Competition though, that was, after all, only six days away, but she could use it to defeat Cinda once and for all.

"Maybe when he's done learning his magic, you can borrow the book from him?" Lucy suggested, speaking as if she had been reading her thoughts the whole time. "It's obvious." Lucy commented. "I mean, anyone in your situation would at least think about it. God slayers are supposedly stronger than dragon slayers, too." She added, prompting Juvia to think again about how much stronger she would be than Cinda.

"Why doesn't Lucy pick up a god slayer magic too?" Juvia questioned. Lucy was a holder mage, but surely someone of her intelligence could pick up another magic with ease, only adding to her power.

Lucy laughed, and then seemed to pause for a minute. "I'm a celestial spirit mage, my heart lies with my spirits."

"Yes, but surely when you're fighting alongside your spirits, it would be beneficial to have caster magic."

"But…" Lucy started. "My spirits are the most important things in the world to me! If I start learning another magic, I wouldn't call them out as much… I'd miss them…" She trailed off.

Juvia just nodded in reply, realising that perhaps she should cease conversation about this specific topic. Lucy was obviously touchy on the subject. Perhaps Juvia could talk to Lucy about this later, when they were under better circumstances. Right now, they needed to focus on the mission at hand, which was – Juvia gasped suddenly, an idea shooting through her mind.

What if after she had learned water god slaying magic, she could give it to Gray so that he could learn ice god slaying magic and become stronger? Or perhaps the two could train alongside each other. It would be so romantic! She could imagine holding Gray's hand, as they took down their enemies with the combined elements that complemented each other so well – the union of water and ice.

Juvia needed that book. She would take it herself; she would pry it from the cold dead hands of – No. She wouldn't. That was not the way Juvia did things anymore, not since she joined the wonderful guild of Fairy Tail. Juvia would complete her mission to the best of her ability, and accept the fact that the book did not belong to her.

"There!" Lucy exclaimed, pointing in the distance to an old wooden ship and bringing Juvia from her thoughts. The whole thing was split into two, with at least fifty meters between each half. Juvia changed her direction, swimming quickly towards the sunken boat, before stopping between the two sides.

Lucy climbed off Juvia's back, swimming with her own strength into the back end of the ship, Juvia following quickly. They swam through the hallway, each side covered in books, once protected by now broken glass doors. Juvia hoped the book they were after would be in a much better condition.

They continued swimming through the hallway until they reached an open area, where one steel chest, completely covered in rusted chains sat. It looked hard, and would almost certainly be nigh impossible to break open. Gajeel on the other hand would be able to get through it with no problem, but alas, it was just the two women on the job.

"Gate of the Lion, I open thee! Leo!" Lucy swished her key through the water, before a familiar celestial spirit appeared. Juvia immediately created a bubble of water around his head, though she wished that Lucy would have the common sense to warn her. Leo swung his fist at the padlock holding it together, shattering it almost instantly. It was impressive, to say the least.

Lucy swam to the box, before pulling the lid off and peering inside. Juvia joined her, looking inside at the translucent plastic packaging. Through it, she saw the words 'God Slayer Magic' printed onto a fine leather-bound book. For the amount of money they would be earning from this mission, it had so far been extremely easy. The hardest part for Juvia would be willingly handing the book over to Oranet… She would just have to trust Lucy with that responsibility.

Juvia looked back up from the box as Lucy grabbed the book, still in its packaging. Then Juvia noticed something eerily different – the water in the area had changed in colour, its usual murky green now a poisonous purple. And Juvia… Juvia was starting to feel… She turned around with as much speed as she could muster. Loke had gone, but in his place stood a truly horrendous creature – what looked to be a cross between a large crab and a squid. It shot purple ink from little holes on the underside of his pincers. No, that wasn't ink… Juvia concluded that it must have been some sort of poison, right before she fell into unconsciousness.

The water mage soon awakened, and her first thought was that without Juvia's water bubble, Lucy must have drowned. Falling unconscious would broken the water bubble around Lucy, meaning she had no oxygen to breathe. But as Juvia rolled onto her side in the sand, she knew things had somehow turned out okay. She opened her eyes, the harsh rays of the sun piercing them.

"Juvia?" Asked a familiar blonde, her voice wavering. Juvia looked over to see Lucy, also sprawled across the sand. She was safe, but the book wasn't with her.

"Are you going to thank me?" asked a rough voice Juvia immediately recognised as the spirit Lucy had previously been against summoning. So in the end, Lucy did summon Aquarius? The mermaid humphed. "Typical, no manners."

"Thank you, Aquarius-san." Juvia said.

"I was talking to miss no-boyfriend over there." She grumbled in reply, her eyes locked on Lucy.

Boyfriend. Of course! Aquarius had a boyfriend; maybe she could give Juvia some advice?

"Aquarius-san!"

"Yes?"

"Juvia would like to know how you and Scorpio got together!"

Aquarius' tough façade disappeared for a few seconds as she began to blush wildly.

"Sco-Sco-Scorpio…" She muttered. Was she as head over heels for her boyfriend as Juvia was for Gray? Aquarius quickly shook herself, her tough posture returning. "That's not important. Why do you ask?"

"Juvia wants to know how to get Gray-sama to love her."

"Oh." Aquarius answered. "I see. Guys like it when you play hard to get. Don't start a conversation with him; make him start one with you. Don't obsess over him; let him obsess over you. Just ignore him. If the guy likes you, he'll play chase."

"Gray-sama…" Juvia muttered. Could she do that to Gray? The ice make wizard had always been cold towards her, but she wasn't sure if she could bring herself to return the act.

"Juvia." Aquarius said.

"Yes?"

"Be cold." And with that, the mermaid disappeared in a shimmer of gold. As she did so, she dropped something onto the sand – something Juvia and Lucy were relieved to see. It was the book they had been after.

"Juvia is relieved you summoned her." Juvia commented. "Perhaps her advice will be useful."

"I didn't summon her… I guess this time she summoned herself." Lucy said, glancing over at Juvia. "About what Aquarius said…" She began.

"Let's just bring the book back." Juvia cut off. "It's about time Juvia tried a different approach anyway, don't you think?" Juvia wasn't sure whether she could do it, but she had to at least try. She had used the same obsessive approach with Gray since she first met him, so maybe a change of pace would let him see a different part of her.

As the two mages arrived at the house, Lucy traded the book for the jewels, immediately giving Juvia her half before declining another drink with the man. Perhaps the reason the reward was so large was due to the amount it was worth. Juvia had no clue as to an actual figure, but surely it must have sold for more than they received on the market.

They stepped outside the house, boarding the carriage again after their mission and preparing to go home. They were just setting off, when Lucy abruptly spoke up.

"Hey, actually, could you wait just a minute?" She asked, before quickly scrambling out of the carriage. Where was she going? Was she going to ask the mage for contact details? Did she intend to enter the Lovers' Competition with him? Juvia continued her wild train of thoughts, until a few minutes later the blonde returned with the simple answer of: "I needed to go to the toilet."

Juvia supposed she overthought things. Again.