So why didn't he just do it?

If ever there was a moment, this was it. They were alone, she was having the time of her life and had never looked prettier, and all it would take would be a few inches to dip in and claim her lips for his own. But all of Gray's worries came back to him in a rush – he really just didn't know how to handle Juvia. And it wasn't because he didn't like her – it was precisely because he did that admitting it was so hard.

He was a coward. He was afraid to let himself love a pretty girl, to risk getting into an actual relationship with all the problems that it would entail. He'd been hurt too badly as a child, and now all he could think about was protecting Fairy Tail and keeping his friends safe.

But would Ur want that?

Humans have a natural need to love, she had said. They gravitate to one another, form guilds and families, because of that need to love. And even if someone denies it, or believes firmly that they are different, they are wrong. Love is what makes us human.

It was time for Gray to get the fuck over himself and just let himself love another human being.

Still holding her hand, he reached over to brush his lips against hers, gently, questioningly. She blinked and when she didn't push him away, he slid his free arm around her shoulders to cradle the back of her head.

"I'm happy that you're happy," he said, and touched his forehead to hers. "And I meant what I said earlier. I do like you, Juvia. Even if I'm not very good at showing it." There, he had laid his heart bare before her. He could imagine Ur smiling at him from the ocean.

"Juvia knows," she said, and gave him another tentative smile. "Gray-sama should just continue to be himself." She reached up to touch his hair softly. "I am glad that Gray-sama is with me." She referenced herself in the first person, a rare occasion for her. "I am happy that Gray-sama is able to love, after all..."

Could she read his mind? He stared at her, in astonishment, and she answered his bewildered look with another dry, chaste kiss.

And that was when he lost it.

He kissed her again, this time much more deeply and urgently. Her hair was down and loose the way he loved it, damp from her bath, and he ran his fingers through it, marveling at the silken texture. She made a tiny mewling sound as he moved his kisses to her jaw, to her neck, and finally to her ear.

If he was going to love someone, he was damn well going to do it right.

She practically squealed when he touched his tongue to her earlobe.

"Gray-sama," she murmured. "Juvia has always dreamed of this..."

He stopped kissing her ear, sensing the unspoken "but" in her sentence. "You want me to stop?" he asked, almost incredulous. She'd been throwing herself at him for months!

"Juvia is... embarrassed." She closed her eyes and squirmed in his arms. "Juvia doesn't know quite what to do. But please do not stop."

Maybe they weren't so different after all.

"Just go with the flow," he said, and resumed kissing her neck. "You of all people should be good at that.

"Yes, Gray-sama."

"And stop calling me 'sama', unless you want me to start calling you 'princess.'"

She giggled.

"Juvia doesn't mind being called princess for a few weeks," she said, and circled one of her fingers along his Fairy Tail mark, just visible through the gap in his shirt. "Especially by Gray-sama."

His answer to that was to growl and slip the strap of the nightgown off her shoulder with one hand, while expertly unbuttoning his own shirt with the other one.

"Juvia doesn't understand why Gray-sama bothers with shirts anyway," she admitted as he shrugged off the garment.

"It's more civilized, I guess. And Erza hits me if I don't at least try."

He pulled her second strap free, giving him full access to both of her pale shoulders. He kissed all around the her clavicles, dipping his tongue into the indentations, trying not to suck too hard because her ceremonial outfit would show every hickey he left on her.

She sighed and gently fell back onto the couch.

He nipped at the point of her shoulder, and then suddenly sat back up. Damn. Damn!

"I don't have a condom," he groaned. "I didn't think I'd need one... I thought I was rescuing you from committing suicide..."

She looked at him, a dazed expression on her face, probably wondering if she was having a dream. "Juvia didn't think she would need one either." She blinked at him, so damn beautiful and sexy and rumpled, but then her expression clarified. "Ah, but Erza taught Juvia a protection spell for times like this."

A...what? He felt his jaw drop open, and with a giggle she shut it, then caressed his cheek.

"I don't know what scares me more, the fact that there is a "protection spell" or the fact that Erza knows it." He shuddered. There was that aversion therapy again – the thought of Erza and sex together was not something he wanted to cloud his mood right this moment.

No distractions allowed. Focus... focus...

He shook his head to clear out that particular thought and return himself to the current mission – pleasing Juvia and getting Erza to shut up about him leading the water mage on. Erza had struck a nerve back in the guild, whether she realized it or not.

He picked Juvia up off the couch, bridal style, causing her to coo in delight. He then set her on the bed, and swiftly stripped out of his remaining clothes. Rapid stripping was not a skill that came in handy very often, but this was one of those rare times.

"All right, 'princess,'" he said with a husky note in his voice as he sat next to her on the bed. "Use your spell or do whatever you have to do...unless you want us to stop now. I mean... I clearly didn't expect for this to happen, and you're probably-"

"No, no, Gray-sama," she cried, interrupting him. "Juvia definitely does not want to stop. What if... Gray-sama changes his mind tomorrow? Juvia wants to make sure she has a precious memory of this-"

He winced and pressed one finger against her lips. "I won't change my mind about liking you. Trust me."

Wanting to feel all of her, he pulled off her nightgown completely, and she was bared before him, her gently rounded curves and perfect skin making all thoughts of angry Erza flee his mind.

"The spell?" he prompted her. She nodded, and chanted a few words under her breath and her body was suffused in a soft glow that faded quickly.

"That's it?"

"Yes," she said shyly, blushing heavily. "Juvia will not have a baby... this time." She cradled her arms across her chest, looking away.

The vision of her with a blue haired baby water mage in those arms was rather endearing, but hell, they had just had their first kiss not twenty minutes ago. He sighed, grabbed her by her shoulders, and kissed her again. Time to make up for lost ground.

He wasn't sure when her shy little hands started tentatively exploring his body, but at some point she found her way down to his erect penis, and stroked it gently, causing him to shudder. In answer, he reached down to her woman's core, also stroking her most sensitive spot while he kissed those glorious breasts of hers.

"So beautiful," he murmured. "Just like a princess..."

His water princess answered him by sighing, or perhaps moaning, or some combination of the two, and stretching her hands above her head to grab the headboard, releasing his member to indulge in her own pleasure.

Gray didn't have a lot of experience in this area, aside from some very drunk groping and moments after particularly raucous Fairy Tail parties, so he hoped her cries of pleasure and the small jerks of her body were a sign that he was doing it right.

He kissed his way from her breasts, down the flat planes of her stomach, down to the soft downy hair at her juncture. He was surprised to see how neatly groomed it was – not quite shaved all the way, but still carefully trimmed. Perhaps it wasn't so unusual, considering how neat and clean she was as a person.

He loved her figure. She was not a physical mage like many members of the guild, and as a result she lacked the sharply defined abs that showed rigorously physical training. Instead, her belly was gently curved, healthy and womanly.

His kisses reached down and replaced his fingers on her clitoris, causing her to jolt in his arms as if shocked. She tasted sweet, freshly cleaned from her bath after her court session. He felt her change her hands from the headboard to his hair, gripping his head for dear life, and he smirked as she chanted his name over and over again in time with his thrusting tongue.

She came with a panicked shudder, and he continued lapping at her gently, extending her orgasm as long as he could.

She lay there panting, and he couldn't help but swell a little, in pride. Bringing a woman to orgasm wasn't so hard after all, he thought smugly.

"Juvia... has never felt anything like that before," she said, her face flushed and sweating slightly.

"Never? You never had an orgasm before?" A thought occurred to him. She had once dated Bora, but that relationship hadn't lasted long, apparently. "You're a virgin, aren't you." It wasn't a question.

"Yes," she whimpered, and turned away. "Who would want to make love to the rain girl?"

"I would," he told her honestly, and laid down next to her on the bed, cradling her a bit, letting her completely recover.

She had plans of her own, however, and with another sly smile she followed the same migratory pattern he had, kissing her way from his Fairy Tail stamp down his chest, paying special attention to his muscular abs, toying with his pubic hair for a few endearing moments, and ending with her mouth wrapped around his dick.

The world almost turned white, and he gritted his teeth and gripped the sheets while Juvia suckled him and rubbed her hands around his shaft and his balls, actually turning them partially to warm water, he realized through his haze, to be able to give him a gentle, undulating pressure all around. It was insanely good and a trick that only a water mage could do.

He groaned in pleasurable agony, trying desperately not to come straight in her mouth and end it all right there. But Juvia was determined, and he found himself letting go, too soon, too soon.

He lay there, stunned, panting, while the water princess lapped up his semen like it was something delicious. It probably was to her...

Once he could speak again, he asked her honestly, "Where the hell did a virgin learn to do that?"

She blinked at him a few times, eyes wide and innocent. "Levy's books," was all she said.

"You researched how to give a man an earth shattering blowjob?"

"Not just any man." She grinned. "Gray-sama only."

He closed his eyes and leaned back, still riding the high, unable to believe the heights that she had taken him to. That had bene nothing, nothing like jerking off. Nothing like a drunk one night stand.

It was because it was Juvia.

After a few more moments he reached down and pulled her up close to him, cuddling her some more.

"Sorry princess, it might be a few minutes before we can do anything else," he warned, and gently kissed her on the nose. "Guys don't have the ability to go at it back to back that easily."

And then her sneaky hand was reaching down, stroking him again with her hand partially liquified, and he felt his spent member growing to life again. He moaned into her neck. Shit, he thought to himself, she's good.

"Maybe not," she said, giving him another sly grin, as she stroked him back to a full erection within just a few minutes.

"That shouldn't have worked," he said, still astonished over the fast return. "It's never worked like that before..."

"Gray-sama wants to please Juvia. Gray's body does, too."

He growled, stilled her hand, rolled on top of her, and settled down in the position that humans had used since the dawn of time, gently butting against her entrance.

"This might hurt a little," he warned, and she nodded in acknowledgment as he guided himself in. He felt her stiffen a little and whine softly, but she bore it well as he tore through the delicate membrane. He waited for a few minutes, letting her adjust, before he gripped her hips and started gliding in and out.

"So wet," he murmured.

"Juvia is water," she said through clenched teeth, reaching up to grab the headboard again as he rode her hard. "And Gray is hard like ice..." She left off the "-sama" for the first time that night, too far gone in her own pleasure to notice it. He wrapped his arms around her back, bringing them closer, nuzzling her ear and her neck again.

She gasped again, and he tried to stay aware enough to complete his mission, to give Juvia the best first time any girl in Fairy Tail could ask for. Her beautiful hair was sprawled along the pillows in those spiral ringlets he adored, and her breasts were bouncing up and down with each thrust. He reached down to kiss her again and she returned the kiss hungrily, entangling her tongue with his in time with their lovemaking.

"Ah, Gray-sama!" she cried aloud, closing her eyes and suddenly clenching around him. He almost immediately lost control for the second time, letting himself come inside her just moments after her orgasm. He thrust a few more times, but they were too slick for friction now, and he stopped, trying not to collapse on top of her.

"Damn," he murmured softly against her cheek. "I thought I had better control than that."

"What do you mean, Gray-sama?" she asked sleepily.

"I wanted to hold off a little longer." He kissed her temple, smelling the waterlilies that scented her hair. "'If a man can forego his pleasure, he can prolong the pleasure of his woman, thus proving his manliness,'" he said in a mocking voice, imitating one of Elfman's manliness lectures.

She giggled. "Did Elfman teach Gray-sama that?"

Gray chuckled as well."Yup, during one of his drunker speeches. After that, Evergreen dragged him off and no one saw either of them for three days. I think she was testing him..."

With a sigh he dismounted, and lay next to her, nuzzling at her shoulder lazily.

"So you're the princess here for two weeks, eh?" he asked after a while, hoping she hadn't fallen asleep just yet.

"Yes," she said. "I hold court for four hours in the morning and another four hours in the afternoon. Other than that, I am free to enjoy the festival as the guest of honor." She sighed wistfully. "It has been like being a real princess. They even bring me breakfast in bed!"

"Thanks for the head's up, we'll both need to get some clothes on before morning," he mumbled against her neck.

She was so damn sexy like that, curled up against him, her lashes dark against her pale cheeks, her hair wonderfully tangled around her head.

"Get some sleep," he said to her, holding back a yawn, "cause we've got two weeks before I have to give up my princess to a water god, and I have a lot of things I've always wanted to try in bed..."

The final day of the Water Festival had Juvia strapped down to a giant slab made out of the same watery quartz as her crown and her throne, surrounded by her six water maidens, while a priest dressed in a giant mask held an ornate bucket of water over her head.

Gray had learned that four hundred years ago, it had been a knife, but a sudden shortage of suitable water mages one year had made them realize that killing off the young ladies who would later on give birth to new water mages was probably not a smart idea, in the grand scheme of things. So the idea of a symbolic sacrifice - just using a fresh water princess each year so the water god got a new "wife" every time - had taken hold instead. The only rules were that she had to be unmarried and at least sixteen years old.

Juvia had shyly told him that she was supposed to technically still be a virgin at this point, but no one would bother checking and more than a few of the previous princesses had actually been engaged or had their lovers staying with them like he had. The water god here apparently didn't care either way about sloppy seconds since his brides were all still alive in the first place. Gray imagined him as a pervy old man like Makarov, content just to have a wet and naked lady presented before him for a few minutes for freebie ogling before she was let go.

The priest doused Juvia in the holy water, and she pretended to lay dead, her spirit given as a token to the water god.

After a round of applause, she was released from the sacrificial altar, and stood up and bowed, drenched and nude but smiling happily. She'd confided in Gray that this was probably the easiest million jewels she'd ever earned.

Her little water maidens toweled her off, and she smiled at them too as they wrapped her in a clean robe. The eldest of them would have her turn as a princess the following year. According to the tour guide, former water maidens were highly prized as wives and brought a lot of status with them - so he better had take very good care of Juvia in the future, she had said with a faintly threatening air.

For the grand finale, Juvia called on all her magic and covered the island in a gentle rain shower. Because Gray was there, the sun shone through the clouds, and for his part, Gray cheekily turned the rain around her to snow, much to the delight of the young water maidens who had never seen it before.

They rode back to Fairy Tail together on the ferry, Juvia back in her normal clothes, and Gray back down to his skivvies as usual. They were holding hands as they leaned against the railing of the boat, watching the sun set together.

"So, I promise the next time you ask me to go on a mission with you, I'll press for more details," he said.

"And Juvia will explain more clearly what the mission is." She glanced down shyly at her pendant. They had given her the blue and white quartz necklace that forever marked her as a water princess, and she couldn't tear her eyes from it.

"I think it suits you," he teased, and touched the pendant.

"Juvia thinks Gray-sama suits her more." She blushed, but managed to look straight at him, a dangerous glint in her expression. She slipped one of her hands under his shirt, brushing her fingertips against his Fairy Tail mark, her newly developed signal that she wanted intimacy.

He rolled his eyes and answered her with a kiss. She was insatiable.

"Now who's got the one track mind?" he whispered, and then dragged her down the hold to their shared stateroom for another round of playing princess.

There's your naughty, everyone. Thanks for all the reviews! Now go poke all your Gruvia friends and have them come read it too!