It was a quiet day at the guild, not many people were in, they were either out on missions or on vacation. It was the summer, after all. Some, however, simply ran away from the guild, to avoid the looming gloom looming over the guild hall. Yes, the looming gloom looming over the guild hall, that some ran away from (author-chan can so totally English).

The water-wizard Juvia, sat alone at a table, drenched by the mini storm cloud pouring over her. To avoid getting soaked, no one went near her. Of course that wasn't what was bothering her. No, that was the least of her problems. There was something else eating away at her, gnawing on her heart and making it rain inside too. Something so unbearable, she couldn't understand why she was staying at the guild. Something tragic-

"Yo! What's up!" The sudden out burst made her jump in her seat, a small blot of lightning almost struck her blue hair. He breathed in and out rapidly, trying to process what just happened. She looked up and saw a certain pink-haired boy standing over her, grinning like some idiot.

"Hi Juvia! How are you?" Said a cuter voice. She looked down at the table, and saw Natsu's little blue companion, Happy, waving a small paw at her, grinning equally foolishly.

Confused, Juvia only managed to convey a few broken syllables. "Man, it's soakin' wet, why'd you gotta rain all the time Juvia," still processing... "Hey Happy, go find us a job, would'ya?" still processing... "Lucy needs to pay her rent again, geez, she really needs to learn how to manage her money better," still processing... "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Lucy around lately. Hey, Juvia, do you know where she went?" click.

The bluenette suddenly started quivering in her seat, quietly whimpering, "Hey, 'you okay?" He asked. She suddenly burst out crying, the storm cloud poured down faster than ever, even Natsu got soaked, "H-Hey!"

"Gray left on a job without me! And Lucy went with did! Lucy did! My beloved chose Lucy over Juvia!" She cried, a fountain of tears splashed over the table and surrounding chairs she sat at.

"No way! But I just found the perfect job for her!" Happy whined as he flew back with a piece of paper, "The reward is 300 000 jewels, it would've paid for this month's rent plus interest!"

"Why would she have gone off with that ice-freak anyway?! I thought we were a team!" Natsu complained in turn. He sat next to Juvia, arms crossed a disappointed look on his face. He got full blast of Juvia's rain, but he didn't seem to care, or get cold. "And now we can't even take this job. Three hundred thou doesn't split two ways; three is an odd number!"

"Actually Natsu, it ca-"

"Oh! I know!" The poor blue exceed got interrupted before he could finish, "Why don't you come with us, Juvia?"

The rain slowed and she blinked at him twice, even more confused than when he first came. "But Natsu," Happy said, "This reward can be split in two. We each get one-hundr-"

"Come on, whad'ya say? Your partner left, our teammate left, let's make a team so we all get work done! And with you on the team, we'll be able to split the reward equally."

"I- uh..."

"Natsu!"

"All right then, it's settled, you're gonna be a part of our team!" He grabbed her wrist and stood up, "Let's go!" He ran out the guild full speed, dragging Juvia all the way out and into the streets of Magnolia.

Happy flew not far behind, trying to catch up to his friend as much as possible. "But Natsu! It can be split two ways! WE'D EACH GET 150 000!!!"

She sat in the train compartment, her head resting against seat while she looked out the window. Natsu was slumped over in his seat, holding his stomach and sweating all over. Gajeel gets sick like that now too. Is it infectious somehow? She looked down at the boy and sighed. How pathetic, She thought, If only my darling Gray were here, he would find a way to knock some sense into the boy.

She took hold of the request paper. The job was in Lotus, a small town not far from Clover, just outside the Clover canyons. Apparently, their forest has been overrun by wild boars and they wanted wizards to capture them, or chase them out. They're afraid that the boars might invade the town, so they wish to dispose of as quickly as possible. She sighed. Such a job would have been much easier to complete.

Half the boars were already unconscious, and Juvia had nothing to do with it. Natsu pummelled every boar he saw, and said they'd take them back to the village afterwards. This left Juvia quite... bored. But he seemed to be enjoying himself, so she let him be. Why on earth would I want to let him have fun? Shouldn't I help?

She looked up at the boy, who had just punched out another beast. Every time he defeated one, he had this huge goofy grin on his face. This time she showed the boar to her proudly, "Got another one!" He said. Somehow, she found that quite cute– What? No, he's cute like a child. Like Wendy. But immature.

She followed behind him as they continued their search for more of those dirty beasts. He's quite muscular, isn't he? She examined his arms a bit more. She felt like touching them, just to see how they feel-- What? No, I-I want to feel them because their obviously not as firm as Gray's. I must want to prove that. It's the only reason I would feel them.

She heard some rustling from behind. She turned back, and Natsu did too. The ground started to shake. "A lot of them are coming," he said. They prepared themselves for battle, summoning their magic to attack. A pack of them came charging toward them. They even destroyed every tree that came in their path, toppling over like dominos. When they were close enough, they attack. Natsu charred them with his Fire Dragon's Wing Attack, and Juvia knocked them out in Water Lock bubbles.

It didn't take them long to finish them off. Even though there were quite a few of them, they didn't expend a lot of magic energy. "Heh heeeh~ I think that's the last of 'em, little buddy!" They high-fived each other, with the goofiest smiles. But, for some reason... her chest felt... warm.

Natsu suddenly got serious. Juvia got confused. Happy too. "Is something wrong, Natsu?" The cat asked. He stayed serious. He was listening. What does he hear? He suddenly shot his head to the side, is glare directed right at Juvia. He ran up to her and jumped-

"Look out!" THUD!

The sharp pain in the back of her head made her dizzy, and she couldn't get up. It feels, warm for some reason. "You all right, Juvia?" I recognize that voice. She looked up, slowly, and the her eyes widened. He was over her, holding himself up on his hands and knees, but their faces weren't that far apart. She looked up and passed him. There was something on back.

"I heard the tree cracking, but I wasn't sure from where. Originally, I was intending to push you out of the way, sorry about that," He grinned sheepishly, and he scratched hi cheek lightly with his index finger. He's cheeks even went a little... pink? Is he blushing? When she asked that to herself, her cheeks suddenly warmed up a bit. What is... this feeling?

He got up, making the fallen tree roll off his back and onto the ground. When he got up, he offered her his hand. There it was again. That goofy grin he was wearing all day. Juvia sent him a small smile. and then she took his hand.

It's warm...

Yes. His hand was warm. So warm. Much warmer than anything she was used to. When he pulled her up, she could practically feel the heat radiating off of his body.

They walked next to each other on the way to get their payment. She made sure never to leave his side. She looked down for a moment. She reached over, gently grazing his arm with her fingers. And then she took a hold of it with both hands.

"What are you doing?" Natsu asked.

Juvia smiled and let her arms fall to her sides, "Nothing, it's not important."