Lost And Found

Untitled Part 6

A few days had passed since Juvia had made her way back to the guild. Each day she'd rush to the guild and just sit around, waiting for Gray to come through those large wooden doors. Every day she'd do that, and every day she ended up being disappointed. Several members embarked on quests or returned from them, and each time those doors opened her head shot up to see who was there, but it was never Gray. Juvia had started questioning why she bothered doing this. She never got the one thing that she waned. She never saw the one person that she wanted to.

Gray's hands were shoved deep into his pockets as he thoughtlessly followed Natsu. It was only when he took a moment to look around, to take in the sights, that he noticed it. They were back tracking. Gray thought about it for a moment, but then dismissed it as an impossibility. If Juvia had turned back and went back to the guild, she would have passed by them and they would have headed back together. Gray snapped back to being a thoughtless drone, following wherever Natsu went withouht questioning his judgement. The strangest thing wasn't that Gray had been following Natsu for a few weeks now without questioning him, it was the fact that the two mages hadn't argued. Not even once. There was no Erza to force them to be on mutual terms together, and they only had the company of eah other. Past experience had taught them that they couldn't be anywhere alone, or an argument or brawl was destined to follow. It must have been due to the fact that they were looking for their lost nakama that took their mind off of being alone together that kept them on reasonable terms, or it might have been because the two had hardly talked since they left magnolia. Either way, it was a sort of blessing for Gray. He wouldn't be able to put up with Natsu's crap and look for his nakama at the same time.

The pair of mages opened a wooden door and stepped into the building near the centre of town. There were quite a few people bustling around inside. Hardly surprising since darkness was setting in and this was the time that this place got most of it's business. The two had been walking all day, and following Juvia's trail had brought them here, so they figured that it wouldn't hurt to rest up a bit now that they were here. The duo of mages approached the desk where a woman of average height greeted them with a smile.

"Two rooms". Natsu was as lively as ever, even when asking for some where to sleep. It was like a complete contradition.

"Sorry, we only have one available". Before Natsu could react and start up some argument with the woman, Gray chipped in.

"We'll take it". Gray slammed a small bag of jewels onto the desk before following the woman's directions to the room, with Natsu following close behind. Once they were in the room, there was a small dispute over who would get the bed. The dispute was quickly settled with Natsu getting the bed, mainly because Gray couldn't be bothered arguing and he was so tired that he'd be fine falling asleep on the two seater sofa in the corner of the room.

Gray woke up early the next morning, wearing nothing but his boxers. His clothes were on the floor near the centre of the room. He didn't really remember taking them off, but then again he hardly ever did. After a minute or two of getting dressed, Gray shook Natsu awake and dragged him outside. It ttok a moment for Natsu's eyes to adjust to the sudden change in brightness, but once they did, the pair started back on their path of following Juvia.

Another two days had passed and try as she might, Juvia ouldn't restrain herself from checking every entrance or exit of the guild to see if Gray had finally returned. The large wooden doors swung open and Juvia looked up. She sighed. Just Evergreen. The double doors opened again and Juvia's eyes darted towards them. She sighed. Just Macao. The doors flew open again. Juvia's head shot up. She sighed. Just Gray. Juvia thought about her last mental complaint. Just... Gray. Gray! Juvia shot up from her seat.

"Gray-sa..." Gray's eyes were fixed on her. Not in the way she had always fantasised about either. He was glaring daggers at her. Each step that Gray took towards her caused more and more anxiety to build up inside her. As he got even closer, the anxiety switched to fear. Fear of what he might say now that he was looking down at her. Fear of what he might do. Gray raised a hand in front of Juvia. Her eyes were locked on his hand. Each time she's done something wrong in her previous years, she'd been physically punished for it, and was expecting the same thing to happen here. Though she wasn't really expecting Gray to be the one punishing her. Gray's hand rushed downwards towards her as Juvia closed her eyes in anticipation. Gray's hand took a firm grip on Juvia's shoulder. She looked up at him. No searing pain across her face like she was used to, just him looking down at her.

"Don't... Don't EVER do anything like that again". He seemed more worried than angry at her. Juvia was a bit lost for words. She wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but she certainly wasn't expecting this. Whilst she stilled processed the situation, she found herself nodding. Juvia wrapped her arms around Gray's waist and she pressed the side of her face against his chest. He hadn't seen her in a few weeks and she had ran away from the guild, so he decided to give her this one. He placed his hand on the back of her head, loosely holding her in place.

"Gray-sama?" Her voice was barely above a whisper, but he could feel her cheek muscles move as she started smiling.

"Yeah?" His voice was nearly as quiet as hers.

"Your shirt"