Gray's sense of time was skewed, and he wasn't sure how long he was kept immobile, cheek and chest pressed against the hard metal flooring. There was not really any use in lifting his head, and comfort was not an option no matter how he tossed and turned.

Verona had become serious and silent, doing whatever mysterious thing she was doing that would inevitably become a pain—outside, Gray heard the common bustle of a guild hall (not so loud as Fairy Tail's), and inside, Gray could only hear the heavy thud of his heart and his increasingly perturbing thoughts. He was getting sick of it, and fast.

At first he didn't even notice the screaming. Neither did his captor. The usual noise segued beautifully into actual shouts of terror, and Gray realized this around the same time as Verona stopped what she was doing and stood up. Her chair screeched. The sounds were distant, but Gray could certainly make out the shrieks of distress.

It was easy to see because he was at eye-level with it, but water was leaking into the room from under the door.

"You're in for it now," he said, angling his head as he listened for the sweet sounds of torrential wreckage. A particularly terrified scream rang through the air, piercing the walls. "Oh man. Fucked. What did I tell you."

Ignoring him, Verona stepped towards the door, staring down in shock at the water pooling around her feet. "How did she get here? She's flooding the guild—she's flooding the guild?"

Gray was starting to get wet and a little bit worried that she'd flood the room and he'd drown like dead weight. But more strong was the overwhelming relief, the happiness, the pride. He laughed.

He didn't have to worry about Juvia after all.

Although maybe it was best that Juvia not worry about him so much.

The door broke under the water pressure. Gray cursed, wiggling in his bonds, and to his side the thief master shrieked—the rising water level took up about 1/3 of the whole room, and Gray had to crane his neck to keep his mouth above the surface. He was very much aware of how stupid he looked, and more aware that he wasn't getting a good view of what was going on. Evidently, nobody had been able to hold off Juvia.

She stood in the doorway, wading through the water in her ragged questwear. He thought he glimpsed a wound on her arm, and winced—then Juvia nudged another smaller figure inside. The water sloshed, much like Gray's beleaguered lungs. His helplessness was beginning to grate his pride more and more.

His ears were waterlogged, but he could make out Verona's voice, heavy with shock and anxiety—"Give him back! Ross, I can't believe you even got caught-"

"You give me back my Gray-sama first. Where is he?"

Gray almost felt ungrateful for being annoyed with her choice of words. She was so forceful when she wanted to be. He tried to steady his voice. "Here. Juvia. Water. God damn it."

"Gray-sama!" She took a joyful step towards him and flinched. So she was in pain—she was probably on the brink of collapse, too. But she seemed to understand, and the water elevation dropped with a wave of her hand. Gray resettled more comfortably (as comfortably as he could get) and heaved a sigh of great relief. Meanwhile, Juvia turned her eyes on Verona, gripping the boy's shoulder.

"A prisoner exchange," she said, with that same force.

"You didn't hurt him, did you?" Verona asked.

"No. Juvia did not even tie him up. Juvia didn't cage him." Gray let his forehead droop against the cage floor at that. Damn, it was embarrassing, especially since Juvia was always putting him on a pedestal. But perhaps it would also be good if she stopped doing that—still, this wasn't exactly the way he saw this mission going.

Verona was staring Juvia down. Her expression wavered, her hands fisted at her sides. Wind started to whistle through the room with no direction or source.

"Prisoner exchange," Juvia repeated calmly. The boy next to her was cowering; Gray could see his legs quaking.

The whole room—the whole guild hall—was soaking wet. If Verona wanted to use a lightning strike, it could quite possibly hit her, her friend, and her unconscious thieves. It could kill them.

They were in the midst of a standoff. Rather than the cold, the tension of the impasse had Verona shaking, too.

"You couldn't possibly understand—" she spat out, and Juvia's face hardened. Gray hadn't really seen that expression on her before.

"Release Gray-sama," she said, and she sounded every bit the wrathful sea goddess she was constantly taken for. Gray didn't know how to feel about that. But he was definitely feeling something.

"Please," Ross said quietly. He could barely be heard over the wind.

Without a word, the brooding storm woman applied her magic. The cage opened, and Juvia, stringing the boy along behind her, strode forward through the water and pulled Gray out none-too-gently. He fell with a huff. She sliced his bonds and he paused on the floor—his numb muscles felt like they were gasping for breath, too.

The first thing he did was freeze Verona's feet solid to the flooded floor. As he stood up, he wanted to make eye contact with her to gloat a little bit, to reassert his ability and point out her short-comings, but she wasn't looking at him. She was looking at the wall. Shaking. Crying.

He looked incredulously at Juvia, but Juvia was fixed on their enemy's expression, her face warped with sympathy. She looked as though she might cry too. "Don't, Gray-sama," she murmured, and wiped savagely at her eye.

This was really not how he'd expected the quest to go at all.

"Juvia has a solution." She let go of Ross, who stilled for a moment before running to his friend's side. "Juvia will not let you two suffer like this any longer."

"What are you talking about?" Gray cut in. She looked right at him, pursing her lips.

"Gray-sama and Juvia are going to give the quest prize offered by the merchant guild to them," she said without a trace of apology. The way she said it made it as sure as law. He furrowed his eyebrows at her—in the periphery, the thieves were bewildered, gaping. "All of it."

"What the hell, why?"

"They need the money," she responded sorrowfully. "Juvia will pay you back."

"That's not it!" Gray said hotly. "She tried to kill you! And we've already pretty much caught them."

That was the principle that stuck him up—losing the money for rent was an issue he might be able to fix on his own, and Gray was leagues from greedy. But giving someone like this the money—he looked at her angrily, and she glared back, but it was hard to ignore the tears at the corners of her eyes.

"Yes, and she captured you and took you away from me. I was… very angry." Juvia stated, fingering at the hem of her dress. She was looking down, troubled either by her anger or the fact that she was directly opposing him.

"But please understand, Gray-sama. I know you will." Her voice was barely above a whisper, but it began to pick up with fortitude as she continued. She raised her eyes to stare at him dead-on, somewhere between pleading and outright telling. They were more sure than he'd ever seen them, but filled with the same kindness that she showed every day.

"She did not do those bad things for her—she did them for love—" she shot Verona a significant look. "Right?"

Mutely, Verona nodded.

Juvia continued, reaching out to steady Gray's arm. Her stare was significant, then, too, and Gray looked away fast. "For the man that stole the rain."

"Huh?" he asked, not comprehending.

"That boy's brother. The person who helped her to not—to not make storms all the time. The person who calmed her and helped her to control her powers. The person who gave her a home and a family and much kindness, isn't that right?"

The thief girl's cool front had crumpled. She nodded vivaciously, wiping at the tears flowing down her face. She had no volume control like this.

"But—but that no-good goddamn council might—might have him executed by the end of the week—if I don't—I thought—we thought we could pay them off with enough money—"

Juvia brushed past Gray and knelt at the woman's side, holding her hand and looking up at her with soft, knowing eyes. "Someone who would do anything for love is—very scary—but I understand."

"Do you?" Gray looked at them. Something was nagging in his head, and he tapped Juvia on the shoulder, soft and slow and with a sort of urgent curiosity. "Would you do anything—kill someone, even—for someone you love?"

Juvia did not face him, and she was very quiet.

"Juvia might bear that sin if there was reason to. If the person—if the person who stole the rain, if he was in immediate danger, if there was no other way, Juvia would, maybe…"

Gray didn't know what to think about that at all. He swallowed thickly, backpedaling to safe ground. "But—"

"There were other ways in this case," Juvia pressed on, not addressing him anymore. "But Juvia understands desperation, too. So that's why… please let us vanquish this thieves' guild, take the money, and save your love!"

She was so passionate. Gray sat on the ground with a light splash resounding all around him, and waved his hand dismissively at the two teary-eyed girls (and the teary-eyed boy.) "If this guy sealed away your darkness—and if you really won't do anything nasty anymore—then sure. Take the money." He rested his cheek on his palm, took deep breath and was more than ready to wait for Juvia to cry out her feelings for another ten minutes.

When she whipped her head around to smile at him, soaked strands of hair falling around her face, Gray thought it was possibly the most brilliant thing he'd ever seen.

"If it makes Gray-sama feel better, you can tell everyone that you saved me."

She was leaning on him—they were both limping, though, and the last few hours of walking had been torturous. He'd offered to carry her, but she was sensitive to his injury, too.

At least, he supposed, they weren't weighed down by the promised bags of money.

"I did! I did save you!" He said, frowning at her. She giggled and pressed her cheek against his arm and he grunted with frustration but didn't move. At least they'd reached the outskirts of Magnolia. Fairy Tail and rest awaited them.

Ah.

And the issue of rent.

"What's wrong?" she asked, and he snapped back to attention, wondering if he'd been making a weird face. He shook his head.

"Just. Wondering how I'm gonna pay for my apartment this month."

She held his gaze for a moment, then promptly drooped, forlorn and downcast at the drop of a dime. "Juvia too…" she said sadly, and Gray realized he'd thoughtlessly reminded her of her problem. She hadn't been thinking about it at all, had she?

"I still don't regret my decision, but…" she shuffled her feet back and forth, biting her lip. "But Juvia is sorry!"

"No," he said, patting her on the shoulder. "It was my decision, too. And I also don't regret it."

She beamed at him again. He wondered when she'd become so radiant.

Seeing that she was content to just smile at him, then, he cleared his throat and continued. "I wonder if Cana and Erza would lend me money?" A pause. "No, I think I'd rather die than see their disappointed looks. They'd hold it against me forever."

They walked a few more steps like that, ruminating in their mutual problem.

It was Juvia who had the idea.

She halted, and Gray halted with her, glancing at her with a question on his lips. He was about to ask, but was perplexed by the imploring look she was giving him. Sometimes he was glad that she seemed given to nonverbal communication, and sometimes it was just a puzzle.

"I wonder how Gray-sama feels about cohabitation?" she said slowly.

Misunderstanding deliberately, he said, "Oh, right. You could live with Lucy!"

"Lucy-san likes her privacy," she said, stubborn.

"Gray also likes his privacy." he said, staring. She was unwilling to push any further, and nodded sadly. To be shot down so quickly!

In the ensuing silence, his mind wandered. Despite his attempts to banish the thought, he was considering the idea. They'd begun walking again, but not minutes after the first stop, Gray stopped her with a resounding sigh.

"We," he said.

"Yes?"

"We could make rent. If we shared an apartment. Couldn't we?" He shut his eyes tight, not wanting to see whatever freakish reaction she had. It was only a matter of helping out a friend and being fiscally responsible at the same time. He could justify it, he really could, it wasn't salacious, why did everyone always think he was salacious—

She was surprisingly steady with her voice, her hand perched over his. She was careful with her words, too, careful not to misunderstand or jump to conclusions, careful to wrench the satisfying, sweet words right out of him again.

"You are saying that you wish to move in with Juvia?"

He grimaced. "No. You could move in with me and we could pay my rent between the two of us. Only until you get enough money to get your own place again!"

"You want me to live with you?"

"Juvia, this isn't a goddamn proposal. I just—"

She was crushing him with this hug. Brilliant, brilliant. He dared not look.

"Yes! A thousand times yes!" She sure was taking it as a proposal. "My dear friend! I'll move everything in right now!"

"Uh," Gray said, momentarily speechless. What was he doing. "Alright?"

Since he was shell shocked by his own proposition, Juvia stepped away from him and started marching off along the canal. His eyes trailed her, and he frowned, stepping after her.

"Juvia? Where are you—"

"To your apartment," she replied breezily. He could just imagine the ear-to-ear grin on her face, and felt a little strange.

"But you don't know where I live—"

"Yes. I do." She said.

She didn't stop walking. But he could see the tinge of blush biting at the edges of her cheeks, and his face was suddenly a little hot, too. The implications of this were maddening. Her fingers closed around his as she led him off like cattle.

At least she was honest about it. There existed creepier stalkers. Less gorgeous stalkers, too.

"Fuck. Okay."