A Change In Timing
Chapter 1
by Contrail

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima, and is being used without permission. No profit is being made from this story.

Notes: Based off of Gray and Juvia's near miss in Fairy Tail Ice Trail chapter 8. I know Juvia appears to talk in first person in that, but I'm not sure if that's a continuity error or not, and I'm used to writing her talking in third person, so I decided to go with third person for her speech in this.

Juvia could feel her heart sinking in her chest with each step she took down the street. She'd returned to where she'd lost the gift she was bringing to her uncle, but had been unable to find a trace of it. It looked like it was well and truly gone. Sighing to herself, she was continuing down the road when a loud cry up ahead grabbed her attention. There was a large crowd gathered, yelling something about a… thief? Wondering if it might have something to do with her gift's disappearance, she walked towards the crowd as quickly as her little legs would carry her.

By the time she got there, the crowd had already mostly dispersed. A boy close to her age was still squatting there, though, examining a stained bag full of something with a frown. "Damnit… This thing's toast…"

"Is something the matter?" The question was asked by a quiet voice, but the unexpected sound still almost made Gray jump out of his skin. Turning to the source of the question, he found that a girl had managed to sneak up on him while he was occupied with examining the bag of golden cotton. She looked to be a little younger than him, and looked to be well prepared for the unexpected rain, carrying an umbrella and even having a teru teru bozu pinned to the front of her coat.

He scratched the back of his head as he answered, "Er, well, there was something really valuable in here, but the rain… kinda ruined it."

"Oh." The girl looked down at her shoes, the corners of her mouth drooping. "Juvia is sorry."

Gray blinked at her. "Why? It's not like the weather's your fault."

But that statement only seemed to upset her further. "But it is!" she insisted, sniffling. "Juvia brought the rain with her!" As if to confirm her tale, the rain was growing heavier around them.

He was starting to panic - he didn't know what to do with crying girls, particularly not ones who apparently made it rain when they cried! "Uh, well, it's not like you meant to ruin it, right?"

Juvia looked up at him and nodded cautiously, the rain lightening a little.

Letting out a relieved breath, he continued, "And you must have powerful magic if you can change the weather like that."

She looked down again, fingers twisting the hem of her coat. "But Juvia can't control it at all. It just rains wherever she goes."

"It takes time and training to get good at magic, y'know. Once you can control yours, I'm sure you'll be really strong," he reassured her. "Someday all your clouds will clear away and you'll see the blue sky."

Eyes wide, she looked up at him again, a tentative but hopeful smile on her face. "Do you really mean that?"

"Yeah," he said with a nod, happy that she seemed to be cheering up. It was now barely drizzling. "And rain's not all bad. It waters plants, and leaves puddles that are fun to splash in."

Her cheeks looking a bit pink, she looked away shyly. "Nobody's ever said anything that nice about Juvia and her rain before." Gray frowned a little at that - not ever? - but before he could say anything more, her eyes widened as she gasped. "Oh! There's Juvia's present! She thought she lost it, or…"

"I guess that stupid thief must've took it with the other stuff, but I got him good!" Gray smirked a little, remembering how he'd clobbered that guy.

Having moved over to where her gift was lying and picked up, she turned back towards him, a confused expression on her face. "You did? How…?"

"With my magic! I'm an Ice-Make Mage, see?" He brought his hands together in the right pose and quickly made a teru teru bozu to match the one attached to her coat.

Stepping closer to him, she peered curiously at the ice creation, a smile slowly stretching across her face. "Wow, that's amazing!" He couldn't help grinning at her reaction. After a few more moments of carefully examining the figure resting in his palm, she shifted her focus back to him and asked, "Um, what's your name?"

"I'm Gray."

"Gray-… sama," she decided with a small nod. "Juvia is Juvia, and she thanks you very much for stopping the thief. She would have lost this, otherwise."

He blinked at her. He didn't think he'd ever had anyone address him with such a respectful suffix before, but he couldn't say he really minded it. "Uh, sure. No problem."

"Juvia just wishes she had some way to reward you, and make up for ruining your things, but she has nothing to give you…" Her voice trailed off as she looked away sadly, only to perk up a few moments later as an idea occurred to her. "She could make something and send it to Gray-sama later."

"You don't have to go that far…" Not that he objected to the idea of getting a reward, but really, she didn't have to go out of her way like that to do so. "Besides, I don't have anywhere for you to send it to."

A puzzled frown crossed her face. "You don't? But then where do you live?"

He looked a way, rubbing the back of his head again. "I don't. Live anywhere, that is." Seeing her expression growing concerned, he took a nervous glance at the sky, which was still somewhat overcast even though the rain had stopped a while back. "But this guy told me about a guild called Fairy Tail over in Magnolia, so that's where I'm heading."

Relaxing at his words, she nodded. "If Gray-sama joins a guild, he won't have trouble finding somewhere to stay. Juvia's uncle recently became the master of a guild, so she should know. But that doesn't tell Juvia where she should send the reward…"

"I told you, you don't need to…"

She ignored him as she started to dig through the bag she was carrying. "Juvia knows, she can give Gray-sama her address! That way, once he's settled somewhere in Magnolia, he can write her to let her know where to send his reward to." She smiled as she pulled out a notepad and pencil from her bag.

Gray sighed. It was obvious that he wasn't going to convince her not to do this. He supposed it was kind of sweet of her, to be so concerned about rewarding him for getting her present back and making up for ruining the golden cotton.

Once she was done writing her address down, she tore the sheet out of the notepad and handed it to him. "Don't forget to write. Juvia should be going now, or she might miss her train…" She turned and started to walk away, only to look back at him after a few steps. "Juvia is glad she met Gray-sama!" With a small wave, she took her leave.

He smiled at her retreating back, then frowned. With the golden cotton ruined, he still didn't have a way to pay for his own train ticket. Thankfully, a wealthy businessman who wished to reward him turned up shortly to get him out of that particular pickle, and he left the town under clearing skies.

If anyone's wondering about the reference to Juvia's uncle being the master of a guild, sasskiiia on tumblr has a headcanon that Jose Porla is her uncle. While I'm not sure if I'd like that to actually turn out to be true in canon, I decided to make use of that headcanon here because I think it'll work out well for this story.

Please review and let me know what you think! :^)