Outsiders (Fairy Tail - Gruvia, Gale)

7. Catching up

"Welcome to the second day!" the presenter announced excitedly. "Get ready, ladies and gentlemen, for another exciting day of magic!" 

Gajeel and Juvia were sat together with Lily on the back row of chairs on the Phantom Lord balcony. Sol and Totomaru were standing by the front watching everybody else appear in their balconies and listening to the days schedule. Aria was stood leaning against a wall behind them. 

"And on to the first event of the day. We test the wizard's speed, balance and stamina in Chariots!"

Totomaru turned towards the rest of the team. "I'll take this one, everyone," he smirked. 

He left to join the others down in the stadium before anyone said anything. Juvia frowned. "Do you think he can do it?" she asked Gajeel. 

He smirked and wriggled his nose. "He's a cocky bastard; so as long as he doesn't go showing off, I'm pretty sure we have this one."

"Alright," Juvia said, standing up. "Are you going to watch?" she asked.

"In a minute," he started. 

Juvia nodded and then Lily reached out for her to hold him so that he has a good view of the event, and because he knew that holding him gave her comfort. They joined Sol at the front of the balcony. 

As the contestants were making their way to the starting line on the other side of town, the whole stadium was strangely quiet as they waited for the lacrima screens to appear to show them what was happening.  

"They're all looking at us," Lily said. Juvia looked around, and he was right. 

"So I see," she said. "I'll get them to stop looking. Drip, drip, drop," she muttered, and she couldn't help herself but smirk as the crowd started complaining loudly about the rain that started pouring. 

As they all started scuffling for coats and umbrellas, nobody was looking at them anymore. All the contestants were standing further back underneath the shade of their balconies. Fairy Tail and Lamia Scale were glaring harshly at them. Jura of Lamia Scale was eyeing up Aria, Lyon and Gray were watching Juvia, and the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth narrowed their eyes at Gajeel, who had walked forward out of the shade, next to Juvia. He put a hand on her shoulder. 

"You can stop it now, the rain is really annoying. How are we supposed to watch the games if we can't stand outside?"

Juvia turned towards him and the spell stopped instantly. "Sorry."

As the race across the chariots started, Totomaru chuckled as he watched the rain pour over the colosseum in the distance. "Juvia," he muttered.

Next to him and fighting to try and get past, Olga of Sabertooth smirked. "What are you laughing at you weirdo?"

"Not you, you aren't important enough," he started, then started running ahead, creating big flames behind him to stop anyone from passing. 

A strange spirit appeared as Fairy Tail's Lucy was transported forward and was now in first place.

"Good job, Virgo!" she started, but as soon as the spirit disappeared she wasn't fast enough and Totomaru and Olga ran past her. 

Yuka from Lamia Scale was close behind them after pushing the rest of the guilds out of the way with his wave magic. 

"You won't get away," he started, making a pose to start his magic-dispelling spell, but Totomaru turned around instantly. 

"You think I don't know that spell? Too slow," he said, sending him hurling backwards with a brutal blow. "I know you too well," he laughed, then ran further ahead. Olga tried to hit him with his magic but he dodged it. 

"Aah, I know you. Lightning God Slayer Olga. Pleasure to meet you. I guess you can call me Fire God Slayer Totomaru, or Sir, whatever you prefer..."

As they watched the event take place, the Fairy Tail guild all looked at eachother in surprise. "They have a God Slayer on their team too?! What else are they hiding?" Erza smirked. 

"A Fire God Slayer? Like that Zancrow guy from Grimoire Heart?!" Natsu said. 

"Anyway," Totomaru started, running forward to another carriage. "Theres no point fighting now. See ya," and he starts running ahead.

Watching the lacrima carefully, Juvia shook her head. "He has to show off."

"He got us everyone rearing for a fight too, then he just runs away," Lily noted.

"What a pussy,"

Juvia just frowned. "Now, now. That's our teammate. Does it matter what he's doing? He's winning." 

"Barely," Sol said, nodding his head towards the lacrima. Olga and Totomaru were almost tied. 

"Well I don't believe it! It seems Phantom Lord have a God Slayer on their team! They just keep surprising us!" Juvia bit her lip as she heard that. She didn't like how all of their secrets were coming out. 

The chariots were now close to the stadium. Totomaru had distracted Olga fairy easily by getting him agitated to fight, and was now ahead. All of the other contestants were a fair few chariots away, so it was a tight battle for first and second place. 

"I hope I meet you again, brother. It would be quite a show to battle another God Slayer. But then, why would I waste my time on you? I might as well just fight Laxus seeing as dragon slayers are more powerful. How does it feel knowing you'll never always be weaker than two other dragon slayers?"

"Shut up," Olga muttered. "I didn't know you Phantom freaks could talk. And that's not true... wait, what do you mean by two dragon slayers?"

Totomaru just cackled again. 

"Nothing. I only needed to distract you long enough," he said, and Olga looked up to see he was two chariots ahead. "See ya," he grinned, then jumped off of the chariot and ran through the finishing line. 

"And Totomaru takes first place, winning the Phantom Lord guild six points!" the commentator called. "Fairy Tail's Lucy jumps ahead and takes second place with five points, Sabertooth's Olga takes third, Lamia Scale is in fourth, in fifth is Blue Pegasus and in Sixth, Mermaid Heel."

"How did she...?" Totomaru started as he watched Lucy being carried by a spirit who looked like an ordinary boy appear just in front of Olga. But Totomaru just smirked because he didn't really care and the look on Olga's face gave him immense pleasure. Olga grimaced at him, and he just waved at him with a cocky grin.

Gajeel laughed loudly as he watched Olga turn around angrily to leave with the rest of the contestants. "Oh, yeah. I forgot. Totomaru has a talent for being a loud-mouthed arsehole who pisses everyone off. He's worse than you, Sol."

Juvia let out a chuckle, but her heart was beating fast as Totomaru had come far too close to revealing their team's other big secret.   

When Totomaru returned, he and Gajeel fist bumped. 

"Good job," Lily said. 

Juvia gave him a small smile and Aria patted him back.

"You don't have to be such a talker, you know," Juvia started. 

Totomaru frowned. "Yeah, I know. Sorry, it nearly came out, but I was only distracting him, I wasn't actually going to tell him," he said, pulling on his collar nervously. Juvia raised an eyebrow.   

"Don't worry," she said softly. "You did well."

From across the stadium, Gray watched Juvia smile for the first time since he saw her. "They're smiling," he said, but nobody was listening as they were all busy congratulating Lucy. He couldn't help but stare, because for the first time since the competition began, The Phantom Lord members looked like they were friends.