Best-Laid Mistakes
Chapter 9
by Contrail

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

Juvia was nervous as she pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant Gray had told her to meet him and his friends at. Meeting new people was never an easy thing for her, even knowing that there would be several people there that she already knew, at least in passing. And dealing with the extra traffic that the start of the Christmas shopping season brought hadn't helped her nerves any.

She did smile a little when she spotted Gray waiting outside for her. Parking in the spot next to his car, she got out of the car and greeted him. "Hello, Gray."

"Hey," he replied. "Ready to join the madness?" Not really waiting for her to respond, he lead the way into the restaurant and over to a large table. She immediately spotted Levy and Gajeel among those seated, and gave them a little wave. "Hey, guys," Gray said as they reached the table. "This is Juvia, my…" He seemed to struggle with what to say for a moment before deciding on, "My dad's adopting her."

Turning more towards her, he said, "You know who Gajeel and Levy are already."

Juvia nodded, and Gajeel said, "Hi, Blue. Stripper."

Gray rolled his eyes a little at the nickname, while Levy politely told her, "It's good to see you again, Juvia."

Pointing to where Natsu was sitting across from Gajeel with a busty blonde next to him, Gray continued, "You know Natsu as well, and that's Lucy next to him."

"Yo," Natsu said, giving her a casual wave of his hand in acknowledgment.

"It's nice to meet you a bit more properly, Juvia," Lucy told her with a smile.

"Yes, it is," she agreed.

The next person around the table was a fairly tall, well-dressed woman with amazingly long and beautiful red hair, and next to her was an equally well-dressed man with blue hair and an odd red facial tattoo. "This is Erza and Jellal Fernandes," Gray introduced them.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance," Erza told her, standing from her chair to lean across the table and offer Juvia her hand. Juvia took it after a moment's hesitation, finding Erza's grip to be very firm. She had a feeling this woman was a force to be reckoned with.

"Yes, a pleasure," Juvia replied after Erza had released her from the handshake.

A simpler, "Nice to meet you," was Jellal's greeting, which she returned. He seemed quieter than his wife, but there must be more to him than that if he could keep up with someone like Erza.

At the end of the table a demurely dressed pink-haired woman sat across from an orange-haired man wearing sunglasses and a suit. "And these two are Aries Shepherd and Loke Aster," Gray told her, finishing off the introductions.

"H-hello," Aries greeted with a nervous smile.

Giving her a reassuring smile back, Juvia said, "Hi, it's nice to meet you."

With a sly smile, Loke told her, "Gray didn't do justice to your beauty when he told us about you."

Taken aback, Juvia could feel herself blushing a little as she replied, "Um, thanks?" She thought that he and Aries were a couple, but maybe not…

"But even beauty as great as yours could never sway my heart from my love," he continued, his expression turning softer as he looked towards Aries.

"Loke…" Aries groaned, hiding her blushing face behind her hands. Ah, so they were together, Loke was just a flirt.

Juvia took the seat to Gajeel's right, which was also across from Erza, while Gray sat to her right next to Loke. She listened to the conversation around the table with half an ear while she perused the menu. By the time the waitress arrived to take their orders, she'd settled on chicken in a mushroom sauce with broccoli and wild rice.

Once their orders had been placed, Erza turned to Juvia and asked, "Is your pregnancy going well?"

She was a little surprised at being brought into the conversation, having been content to watch and listen to Gray's friends interact, but replied, "It seems to be, though Juvia has little to compare it to. She's feeling better than she did in the first few months, at least."

"Yeah, I remember how much of a pain that time was," Lucy commented. "Enjoy this time before you start swelling up like a balloon."

Oh, that was right, Natsu and his wife had had a son recently, hadn't they? "When was Kenneth born again?" Juvia asked.

"July twelfth," Lucy answered with a fond smile. "So he's only four months old." Something seemed to occur to her then. "Oh! You know, I still have all of my maternity clothes, and I think you're about the same size as me. Maybe you could come over sometime and see if there's any you'd like to borrow?"

"That's very generous of you, Lucy," Juvia told her earnestly.

"Well, you're practically Gajeel's sister and will be Gray's sister soon, so you're part of the group already," Lucy stated simply. Juvia had felt Gray stiffen beside her momentarily when Lucy had made the remark about her being his sister. Frowning a little, she glanced at Gray out of the corner of her eye. She'd thought that he was getting more comfortable with the idea of her joining his family, but…

"I'm a little jealous of you," Erza told her, expression serious. "I really want to be a mother someday, but Jellal and I have decided to wait until our careers are more established before having children."

"Oh. Um, what do you two do for a living, if you don't mind Juvia asking?"

"Not at all," Erza replied. "I am a prosecutor, and Jellal is a public defender."

Juvia blinked at that. "Um, that's…"

"I know it can seem a little strange," Jellal told her gently. "But we both understand that those who have been accused of crimes should be given the justice that they deserve, whether that turns out to be punishment or exoneration. We may be on opposite sides of the courtroom, but we're both needed for the system to function as it should."

"And we recuse ourselves from cases that the other is involved in, of course," Erza added.

"Juvia sees," she said with a small smile. "That sounds very noble of you both."

The conversation moved on from there, but from that point on Juvia was included in it more often than she had been at first. She soon found herself warming up to those in the group she hadn't really known before. Erza seemed strict but caring (and her firm hand was kind of necessary with Natsu, Gajeel, and Gray in the group), Jellal had more of a quiet strength and intelligence to him, Lucy was cheerful and generous, Aries was shy but sweet, and Loke seemed flirty but good hearted.

Eventually Juvia became the focus of everyone's attention again when Lucy asked, "How are you and Gray getting along? I know he can be kinda intimidating when you first met him, but really, once you get to know him you discover that he's actually not as much of an ice king as he pretends to be."

Gray looked a bit miffed at that description of him, while she smiled and answered, "Juvia must admit that things were somewhat awkward at first, but things have improved as she and Gray have gotten to know each other better. She thinks of Gray as a friend now, and hopes he feels the same."

Gray stopped giving Lucy an annoyed look to turn to her and give her a small smile. "Yeah, we are."

Erza looked between the two of them. "So, are you looking forward to being brother and sister, then?"

Juvia's expression faltered at that question. "Um, well…"

She was saved from having to continue her statement when Natsu interjected, "Oh, hey, has Gray lost his clothes around you yet? You can't say you really know him until he has!"

Juvia blushed and looked down, unable to keep from remembering just how much of Gray she ended up seeing. Gray glared at Natsu, while Loke leaned in closer, an amused smirk on his lips. "So he did, huh? How much of a view did he give you?"

Blushing harder, she felt tongue tied, so simply shook her head. Gray gave Loke an accusatory look, which he ignored to remark, "I bet you wouldn't mind seeing more of Juvia if she gave you the chance."

Gray's frown deepened, but before he could say anything, Gajeel called from the other end of the table, "Oi, he'd better not see any more than Juvia wants him to see! It's bad enough that he already showed her more than she needed to see!"

Juvia sighed at her friend's reaction. "It wasn't such an unpleasant sight…" she muttered, but apparently she'd been louder than she'd intended because the others turned towards her, eyebrows raised.

"So you didn't mind getting to see that much of Gray?" Lucy asked, her curiosity evident on her face.

Her blush returning to full intensity again, Juvia replied, "It was an embarrassing incident! But, well, Gray isn't a bad looking guy, so…"

It seemed like they were going to ask more about it, but then Gray put a hand on her shoulder and glared at his friends. "Enough, guys. Can't you see you're making her uncomfortable?"

After a moment, some slightly sheepish apologies were given and the subject was dropped. Juvia gave Gray a grateful smile. After a little bit more conversation, she checked the time on her phone to discover over two hours had gone by already. Getting up, she said, "It's been fun, but Juvia should be heading home."

Goodbyes were said - Juvia was a bit surprised but happy to receive hugs from Lucy and Erza - and she exchanged numbers with Lucy so they could arrange a time for Juvia to visit her and go through Lucy's old maternity clothes. Gray walked with her to her car. "Sorry about the prying questions," he told her before she got in.

She shrugged. "It's okay, Juvia knows they didn't mean ill by it." She smiled a little then. "Her friends will probably be just as bad when you meet them."

"Joy," Gray deadpanned. "What did you think of them otherwise?"

"Well, they're definitely a bit unique, but Gray was right about them being friendly. Juvia likes them."

He smiled. "Well, that's good, since the more time you spend around me the more you'll run into them."

After he finished seeing Juvia off, Gray turned to go back into the restaurant, only to be brought up short when he noticed Loke hanging around the entrance, watching him. Once he reached him, Loke asked, "So, about you and Juvia…"

"What about me and Juvia?" Gray asked, not sure what Loke was trying to get at.

"Is there something going on there?"

Raising an eyebrow at his friend, he asked, "What makes you think there would be?"

Rolling his eyes, Loke said, "C'mon, I know how to tell when a woman's interested in someone."

"If you can tell that, then why'd you keep chasing Lucy?" Gray replied, a little exasperated with this line of questioning.

"Because Lucy was interested in me," he told Gray calmly. "She was just interested in Natsu more."

Changing tacks, Gray remarked, "Just because she doesn't think I'm unpleasant to look at doesn't mean she's actually interested in me."

Still seeming unruffled, Loke replied, "It's hardly just that. Juvia wasn't being obvious about it, but some of the looks she gave you over lunch definitely weren't sisterly. And I know the signs for when you find someone attractive."

Gray sighed. Little did Loke know that there was definitive evidence of just how attractive he and Juvia found each other. "Yeah, she's good-looking, and she's likable, too. But you know I don't do dating, and even if I did bringing that into things would just make a messy situation even more complicated. So whatever potential interest we have for each other doesn't matter - nothing's going to happen."

Loke studied him for a long moment. "Are you sure you're okay with that? I mean, you can't even seem to call her your sister."

He grimaced a little. He just couldn't come to grips with applying the labels of 'sister' and 'mother of my child' to the same woman. "I think it's still better than the alternative."

Slowly nodding, Loke replied, "I hope neither of you get hurt because of it, then. Feelings have a way of doing what they want to do, rather than what we think they should do."

"I hope so, too."

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter, followed, and/or favorited! :^) My apologies that this chapter ended up a week late.