This goes on for a while. It’s not as if it’s every day, but perhaps once every two weeks. In between having hot angsty sex, they mostly quarrel or stare at each other. Gray knows the angsty sex is not helping, but he just can’t stand the thought of her having sex with someone else - and he does want her badly as well. Angsty sex with Juvia is still better than sex with anyone else. They are very compatible and they know each others bodies in and out.
At one party, Juvia gets so drunk that she almost passes out. Erza calls Gray, who takes her home and stays with her. Juvia is surprised when she wakes up - and she is still wearing all her clothes.
“No matter what you may think of me, I don’t have a habit of taking advantage of severely drunk women.”
“Oh really”, Juvia snears, opting for aggression instead of tears this time.
They end up yelling at each other again and Gray leaves.
While Juvia is drinking and partying too much, Gray gets into fights instead - both verbal brawls and physical ones, or just drowns himself in work and training. He’s not even thinking about approaching women. He’s actually actively avoiding them, scared after what happened before Juvia dumped him. Women approaching him are rebuffed immediately. He’s also very reluctant to drink.
One fist fight ends so badly for Gray that he ends up in the hospital. Juvia gets a call from the hospital as she’s listed as his emergency contact. She didn’t even know that she was. She goes to the hospital, but Gray is unconscious. She makes the call to his mother and their friends - and stays by his side talking to him while he’s asleep. When Gray wakes up, his mother is there - and he can see Juvia leaving the room, which makes him feel awful…but at least she was there and he actually heard some of the things she said. At least he knows she still loves him, but it doesn’t really help the situation to know that she feels the same.
They are both miserable and all their friends have to comfort them both on a regular basis.
Erza overhears a conversation at work with someone saying his brother doesn’t know what happened, but he has apparantly cheated on his girlfriend and he has no memory of it. He is devastated and his girlfriend has dumped him. Erza asks questions and realizes this has a lot of common points with Gray’s situation. The place is not the same, but the girl is - and then they discover that the bartender is as well - and the girl has ties to both Juvia and the other girlfriend. They manage to find one other victim as well. Turns out the girl is seeking revenge on the girls for something work-related.
Erza gathers all the friends, the other victims and Gray + Juvia. Gray and Juvia sit at opposite ends of the room, looking unhappy, on occasion sneeking looks at each other.
When the others recount what’s happened to them Gray starts to pay more attention. When Erza reveals how this came to happen - the girl has spiked their drinks with the assistance of the bartender (the guys didn’t think they were drugged as they had been in front of their drinks all the time) and then staged the discovery so the girlfriends saw it, as revenge. Gray looks flabbergasted. Juvia breaks down and cries. Gray walks over to her and kneels in front of her, trying to comfort her. She willingly moves into his arms and they embrace each other with tears running, while their friends look on. The discussion goes on about how to solve this - what to do etc, but Gray says that they will deal with it later. The friends fully understand. Gray pulls Juvia to his apartment and they both cry themselves to sleep in each others arms.
In the morning, they are a bit shy with each other. Juvia says that even though none of them are at fault now, it feels a bit weird just going back to where they were. Gray panics and says that he understands that, but that they can just date, start over? Right? Juvia needs to start over. She should be able to trust him again as he didn’t do anything wrong, but now she’s not used to anymore, so she needs some time. She’s become too unsure about herself to trust him fully, like she used to, or herself for that matter. Also, they have been so angry with each other for months and they can’t just forget that immediately. They agree to just date and take things slow. That girl is not going to succeed - she will not ruin their relationship. They will make this work, eventually. They smile tentatively at each other.
They start to date and interact shyly. They don’t sleep together, but spend a lot of time together and sleep in the same bed. At first, Juvia is slightly relieved about the lack of sex, as she knows that having sex would not be taking things slow - and because of all the angsty sex they’ve been having while apart - but later she becomes very frustrated. Gray makes no move *at all*. Is he even interested any longer? She says to the girls that Gray has become very very cuddly all of a sudden - he basically sleeps spooned up behind her all night and has no problem hugging her or just having his arm around her - in fact he touches her casually way more than he used to, but he is not making any sexual advances *at all*, not even casually when spooning, nothing - and considering he still sleeps nude it’s kind of annoying. If she’s lucky, she can get a chaste kiss on the cheek, or a hug. If she tries to kiss him, he immediately finds something else to do. Juvia is so frustrated she could burst.
“He’s probably waiting for you to trust him again. Didn’t you agree on that? When you do, you can make a move and he’ll jump you in no time.”
“I DO trust him now. I have for quite some time. I have been trying to give him hints as well.”
“Well then, you’ll just have to jump him. He’s probably afraid to make a mistake with you, considering what happened.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want me any more?”
“Are you dumb? Gray, who you’ve been sleeping with even after you broke up with him, who stares at you all the time when you are not looking and who is now training even more than what he did when you were apart, probably to get rid of all that pent-up frustration? He doesn’t want you? Juvia, really? Now go do something about this.”
The next morning, Juvia dresses in cute panties and one of Gray’s shirts - buttoned part of the way, making breakfast. Now that she’s really looking for it, she can see Gray staring at her whenever he thinks she’s not watching - and he does act as if he’s trying not to notice her choice of clothing. Gray says he’ll take a shower and tries to leave, but Juvia pushes him down on a chair, showing a lot of cleavage and says he needs to help her try out some food. Gray groans internally. Juvia then proceeds to tease him mercilessly. Gray gives up trying not to stare at her, but he’s not doing anything, despite the fact that his pants are becoming more and more uncomfortable. Gods is she trying to kill him? Why is she moving around in what she knows he adores seeing on her and doing absolutely everything she knows he gets turned on by? Juvia bends down and looks at him, then kisses him softly. Gray swallows. When Juvia continues kissing him, he kisses back, but makes sure not to kiss her more than she’s kissing him, even if it’s killing him. Juvia then sits down on his lap and really kisses him. They come up for air and stare at each other, both looking very happy and horny.
“I love you Gray”, Juvia smiles and kisses him again. Gray lets go of his self-control and lets his hands roam free. Needless to say, he still wants her.
When they enter the bar downstairs later, they hold hands and both look really happy and all their friends are relieved. Order seems to be restored at last.
