Juvia stood in front of FT Security building, suddenly feeling nervous about her first day. It had been three months since The Tower of Heaven and a month before she got in touch with Master Makarov and thankfully he wasn't opposed on giving her a job. Convincing him to hire Gajeel, her friend, had been much more difficult. Once she convinced the older man to meet with Gajeel, though, he changed his mind.

The building was just as big as Phantom's had been, the only difference was that the entrance was almost hidden by the huge bar called 'Fairy Tail' – maybe the owner was drunk and misspelled the name – and as far Juvia could tell, it was very classy.

Gathering her courage to step towards the next phase of her life, she got inside the hall and saw the doorman, an old man holding a beer. He had dark blue hair, a moustache and his skin was tanned.

"Good morning." She said politely. "My name is Juvia Lockser, I have an appointment with-"

"With Master Makarov, yes." The man said, interrupting her. He smiled and looked at her from bottom to the top and when his eyes met hers, he had an appreciative look. "He told me you were a pretty girl, but he didn't mention how much." He winked. "Nice too meet you, Macao Conbolt." He offered Juvia a hand and she took it. "I work down here most of the time, but I do a little of everything. Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything."

Surprised with his friendliness, Juvia blinked two times before smiling back at him. "Nice meeting you, Macao-san."

"Now up you go, sweetheart." Macao pointed towards the elevators. "Makarov's on the fifth floor. Just talk to Lisanna and she'll know what to do."

"Thank you." She said and did as he instructed.

Once the elevator's doors opened on the fifth floor, Juvia was surprised at how neat the place was: high windows so light could come in and very spacious. There was a girl with short white hair in a desk right in front of the elevator.

Juvia stepped out and once she was close, the woman got up from her seat. She was very beautiful, her big clear blue eyes very mesmerizing and her skin was just as fair as Juvia's. She wore a red pencil skirt and white blouse.

"Hello!" She smiled, friendly, and Juvia found herself smiling back. "You are Juvia Lockser, right? Master's 10 o'clock?"

"Yes." Juvia nodded.

"Nice meeting you, I am Lisanna Strauss." She offered her hand and Juvia shook it. "I'm sorry, but Master is only due this afternoon. He had an emergency meeting with an old client and it's taking longer than he anticipated." For a moment Juvia thought about offering to start the next day, but the other woman didn't give her the opportunity. "So, I'm going to give you the tour and show your office."

Her excitement was adorable – Juvia wondered when was the last time she felt that excited about anything – and the blunette just followed Lisanna around as she showed the fifth floor: it had a bit conference room with glass walls, three other offices (Lisanna informed they were Erza's, Laxus' and Gildarts', even if Juvia only knew one of those names).

The two women then, took the elevator to the fourth floor, where Juvia would be stationed. It was just as spacious as the fifth floor, but was divided in much smaller offices.

"This is your floor." Lisanna informed Juvia. "In here we have our most successful contractors. You could work with any of them if necessity arises, but you'll have a steady partner most of the times. I was told you'll be working with" the white haired woman looked down to her tablet "Gajeel Redfox. Master told me he will be coming in tomorrow, is that right?"

"Yes." Juvia nodded. "He is settling at his new apartment. Gajeel-kun just moved to Magnolia yesterday."

"Ouch, he's gotta to be tired." Lisanna winced. "I remember moving in here a few years ago; I didn't know how much crap I had until I had to pack it all up and then unpack." Juvia decided not to tell that she was the one who had done all the work regarding Gajeel's moving and just offered a smile. "Well, you and Gajeel-san will share a secretary and your offices are side by side. Come with me."

They passed a conference room (much smaller than the one at the fifth floor) and Lisanna finally showed Juvia her new office. It was much bigger than the cramped one she had at Phantom. There were bookshelves on a wall, two dark blue couches that seemed to be very comfortable, a mahogany desk, and a large window right behind where she would sit plus two chairs for clients.

Juvia was truly impressed. "This is beautiful."

"Master had the couches be changed three times before they got the shade right." Lisanna informed her. "He said you were very fond of dark blue." The blunette looked down to her coat that had almost the same shade of blue of the couches. "I guess he is right. As usual." Both chuckled. "Gajeel-san's is right next to yours, the set up is pretty much the same, but the couch is light grey." Lisanna shrugged. "Now come on, you have to meet your secretary."

Whoever she was, she was not at the desk in front of the offices and Lisanna sighed. "I hope you don't mind her, she tends to run off from time to time. She gets the work done, but in her time."

It was the first time Juvia would ever have a secretary. At Phantom she handled her own appointments. "It's fine. Juvia doesn't need a secretary, so, if you need to relocate her..."

"No one is relocating me." Juvia heard a strong feminine voice coming from her left side and when she looked in its direction, she was surprised to see a very beautiful woman with long wavy chestnut hair and brown eyes. She wore a tight dress that showed a little too much of her cleavage. She also had a tattoo around her right upper arm. "I go where the hell I want to."

"Hey, Cana." Lisanna greeted the other woman. "This is Juvia Lockser, you'll be working with her now."

The brunette looked at Juvia from bottom to top and raised an eyebrow before crossing her arms under her chest. "I'm not very impressed, but what the hell, no one thinks Mira can go all demon when she wants as well. I'll try to keep my mind open." She shrugged with one shoulder. "When did you made it into Special Forces?"

Juvia thought about not answering it, but decided against it: if she was to build something during her time at FT, she would need to be more open. "Twenty-four."

Cana raised an eyebrow. "Nice. I was twenty-eight." Juvia couldn't help but to raise an eyebrow of her own, surprised with the information about her new secretary being ex-military. Seeing her surprise, Cana chuckled. "Oh, yeah, I'm pretty kick ass. I didn't like it there and the army was getting into my nerves, so I left. Just because I'm good at something it doesn't mean that I have to stay doing that forever. I like being a secretary." She shrugged. "I get to use my contacts to have intel and I just love to hear office gossip. Plus, I get weekends off, vacation and from time to time when some idiot tries to take one of us down, I get to shoot someone. What can I say? Office life just agrees with me." She winked at Juvia and the blunette couldn't help but to chuckle.

"Good to know you can take care of yourself." Juvia said.

"And don't you forget it." Cana smiled. "Now, here are the rules: you don't mess with my system and I don't mess with yours. If you like to think while wearing a tiara and a fairy dress, it's fine with me and I won't judge, god knows all of us need some princess fairy time. I'd like you not to judge me when I answer the phone in a bad mood and hung up on the clients. Whatever I do, I have a reason for doing so even if you can't see it. I accept that you call me once to know where I am if I'm not at my desk and you need something asap. But trust me: if I'm not here, I'm doing my work somewhere getting information. Get it?"

Juvia shrugged. "Fine by me and for Gajeel-kun too, I guess. We never had secretaries before, so, more than answering the phones to schedule meetings, I'm afraid you'll be very bored."

Chuckling, Cana put an arm around Juvia and led her inside her new office. "Oh, my sweet innocent girl, come with me and I'll teach you the way of the world. I'm never bored. Just focus on shooting the bad guys and let me worry about finding their every dirty secret and throw it on their faces, it's what I do best."

#

That first afternoon, Juvia chatted with Cana and Lisanna for a long time and the three of them even went online to buy Juvia some things to decorate her new office. Later, when Lisanna received the news about Master not going to FT that day and to tell Juvia he was sorry but would see both her and Gajeel the next day, the girls decided to call it a day.

Juvia never had girlfriends, when she was growing up she was homeschooled and when she joined the army, there were few females and most of them were focused on becoming the best and didn't have time for friendship.

As weird as it sounded, Juvia felt like she could be friends with the two women she met that day.

Her second day at FT started with her saying good morning to Macao (she was surprised to know that he was a war veteran and was still very handy with a gun) and proceeded to inform Cana about the clients she was bringing with her from Phantom.

Around lunch time, Gajeel finally appeared, to Juvia's delight. He was scowling, as usual. Gajeel Redfox was a tall, very well built man with long dark hair, red eyes and pierced eyebrows. He preferred to wear black most of the time and he wouldn't feel out of place in the middle of a bike gang. People looked at him and felt terrified – with reason, Gajeel was as deadly as they come. To Juvia, though, he was her friend and once the initial shock of all the piercings and black worn off, people could see he could be a very nice man.

"Gajeel-kun! You came!" Juvia got up from her beautiful blue couch to greet her friend while Cana kept sitting. "Good! Master is in today and asked to meet us as soon as you arrived."

He sighed in annoyance. "Fine." He grunted while Juvia fussed around him.

"Wait, have you eaten today? You have to eat, Gajeel-kun. Juvia swears she has to go to your apartment every three days just to see if you have food in your fridge!"

"Fuck, Juvia, I'm not a fuckin' toddler. I can take care of myself." Gajeel tried to wave her off.

"Oh yeah? What did you have for breakfast today?" Juvia crossed her arms underneath her breasts and Gajeel narrowed his eyes at her and to everyone else, it would be threatening, but to Juvia, it just proved she was right. "Gotcha. We'll have lunch after meeting with Master."

Whatever Gajeel was about to retort, it was interrupted by Cana: "Just so I know if I can enter your offices while there's only you two: are you sleeping together? I don't want to walk in on anything..."

Their reaction was instantaneous. Gajeel said, outraged: "That is disgusting!" while Juvia gasped and said: "Cana-san! No! Never!"

"Sorry, sorry." Cana raised her hands in surrender, but didn't seem like she was sorry at all. "It's just that looking at you two arguing..."

"He's like a little brother to Juvia." The blunette assured her.

"I'm older." Gajeel rolled his eyes and Juvia just ignored him.

"Understood." Cana smiled. "By the way, I'm Cana Alberona, your new secretary."

"Yeah, Juvia called me last night to tell me." Gajeel raised his chin. "Gajeel Redfox. I'm just going to give you a heads up and let you know that my clients are not as fancy as this place's seems to be. Can you handle it?"

"You would be surprised of the shit I can handle." The brunette chuckled and after a moment, she got serious. "Look, I know what happened a few months ago between you, Levy and the boys. If Master says you are hired and you are ours now, I'll believe it. But you do that crap again and people will be scraping your remains from the walls for days. Got me?"

"Feisty." Gajeel grinned evilly. "I like it"

"We understand, Cana-san." Juvia was fast to tell the brunette; they had an agreement with Makarov and neither had any intentions on breaking it. "Now let's go, Gajeel-kun. Master is waiting for us." Juvia grabbed Gajeel by the hand and only when they were inside the elevator, she spoke to her friend after slapping his upper arm. "Start treating people better!"

"Shut up." Gajeel groaned. "I'm here, isn't it enough?"

"No! Our deal was for you to try! Being a jerk is not trying." Juvia narrowed her eyes and when Gajeel sighed, she knew she had won.

"Fine."

Once the door was opened at the fifth floor and introductions between Gajeel and Lisanna were made, the white haired woman led them towards Master's office and just as Juvia had imagined, it was just as beautiful and full of light as the rest of the building.

Makarov, an old man at his seventies, sat behind a huge desk and smiled when he saw the couple enter his office. "Juvia-chan! Gajeel! Nice seeing you again." He waved towards the chairs at the opposite side he sat. "How do you like our building?"

"Very much." Juvia smiled. "Everyone is being very nice and helpful."

"Good." The older man nodded. "The one who will be fussier about Gajeel, will be Natsu. You met him; he is very hot tempered. The others will understand. I talked personally with Levy about this and she guaranteed she was fine with you being here, Gajeel, as long you don't scare the shit out of her again. Her words." Gajeel seemed very interested in his boots at the moment. "Jet and Droy might try to do something, but I'll punish them if they do."

"Don't bother." Gajeel shrugged. "They are angry, I can take it."

Makarov sighed, one of his hands going to massage his temple. "Just stay clear of the third floor and I doubt your paths will cross much."

"Gotcha." Gajeel said, but knowing her friend, Juvia doubted he would.

"How are you holding up?" Master asked Gajeel.

It took the younger man a few seconds to answer. "Alright. It's better now. Juvia's been fussing as if I'm a baby." He sent the blunette a dirty look, to which she paid no attention to.

"Very good. Now, I got a message that Natsu and his team just arrived from their last mission." Makarov got off his chair and the other two could barely see him at the other side. "Now let's get this over with."

#

Once they went to the fourth floor, they could hear the ruckus that wasn't previously there. There were people shouting, but it was kind of friendly. It didn't take too long for Juvia to recognize the very unique color of Natsu Dragneel's hair, then Erza Scarlet's. Next to them to their backs towards the three people going their way, stood Lucy and Gray.

"So you're finally back, are you?" Makarov said and the group turned around. Juvia's traitous heart raced when Gray caught a glimpse at her and gaped at her in surprise. "This is our newest member, Juvia. Cute, ain't she?"

Juvia smiled to the people she knew, her hands behind her back because she didn't want them to see her twisting them nervously. "It's good to see you all again."

Gray let out a bark of laughter. "So you really joined up, huh? 'bout time!"

Erza took a step towards her. "Juvia, you left soon after we tidied things up so I never get to tell you: thank you for all your help back there." Juvia just bowed her head, accepting Erza's gratefulness.

"Juvia has all of you to thank." She grinned. "Juvia will do her best."

"Good luck!" Lucy said, excited.

"Well, make her feel welcome." Makarov said gently and then turned around, calling for Gajeel, who stood, brooding in a corner. "Oh, there's one more new member I'd like you all to meet. Hey, come introduce yourself!"

Juvia braced herself for the reactions and was not disappointed when Gajeel was in sight: Lucy took a step back, Gray yelled 'You are kidding, right?' while Natsu scream 'Gajeel? What's this punk doing-?"

"Master! What kind of joke is this supposed to be?" Gray asked, half yelling and already on his way to go supposedly beat Gajeel when Juvia grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait!" She said in panic. "Juvia brought him here!"

Erza didn't move, but was looking at Gajeel as if he were her pray. "Juvia is one thing, but this guy was directly responsible for our last building's destruction."

Gajeel just looked away and let out an 'hmph' sound. Juvia would have to talk to him again later about his manners.

"Now, now." Makarov tried to calm them down. "He was only acting on Jose's orders back then; it couldn't be helped. You know what they say: 'yesterday's enemies are today's friends'."

"I'm n-not bothered at all, really." Only then Juvia noticed a petite blunette hiding most of her body inside an office, two guys with her and Juvia realized it was the woman Gajeel attacked by the way she looked. Her confirmation was to see Gajeel look down to the floor in shame the moment she spoke.

"Levy-chan." Lucy said and went to be next to the blunette and after some rushed words, they entered the office.

"Stop screwing around! I can't work with a guy like that!" Natsu was angry, pointing at Gajeel.

"Oh, don't worry. I have no intention of being all buddy-buddy with you." Gajeel stepped closer to the pink haired man. "I need work, that's all there is to it. This is as good as the next. Not that I ever thought I'd end up working at nasty little firm like this."

"What did you say?" Natsu was almost spitting flames and Juvia wanted to slap Gajeel until he stopped being so rude; instead she tried to reason with them.

"Gajeel-kun always seemed so lonely. Juvia couldn't beat to just leave him." She said and then added, just so everyone – especially Gray – could know: "I-I mean, Juvia doesn't like him or anything..." They were mistaken as a couple earlier that day and she would be damned if she let anyone else think it again.

"It is the duty of an old man like me to guide young men who have lost their way back onto the right path. He's not a bad guy at heart, you know." Makarov shrugged and then added. "At least I hope not."

Erza sighed. "If this is the Master's decision then I will support it." She said and then leaned to whisper something to the older man.

Meanwhile, Natsu sulked. Cana, seeing that, put an arm around his shoulders and led him away. "Come on, let's go to your office and you can tell me all about your mission." Then, over her shoulder, she yelled. "Juvia, Gray, Uglyface, we're going to Fairy Tail's tonight for drinks. Don't bail; we do this every time we add a new member."

"Fuck her. Am I Uglyface?" Gajeel said loudly and Natsu laughed.

"Gajeel-kun..." Juvia tried to talk to him, but her friend was already close to his office and slammed the door. "Dammit." She cussed under her breath.

"This is fucked up." Gray said and Juvia jumped in surprise, forgetting for a moment he was there. "Gajeel?" He looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"He's a friend. You can trust him." The blunette informed him.

"I'll trust him when he earns my trust, but I will keep an open min." He shrugged and Juvia nodded – it was the best she would get from him and she knew it. "You cut your hair."

Juvia had to stop for a second to think about what he said until she finally understood and reached for her short locks, she had cut it just a little over her shoulders. She really liked the way it curled by the end.

"Oh, yes." She touched it. "Juvia wanted a change. She's going to let it grow, now."

"Hm." It was his answer. "Can I crash in your office for a bit? Lucy and Levy are in mine with Droy and Jet; I'm not in the mood for drama. Too tired." Oh, that meant his office was right across hers. Nice.

Her heart beat faster as she nodded. "Of course." She led the way and showed him the couch. A moment later he was sprawled all over, his forearm over his eyes and he sighed in relief. "Was the mission successful?" Juvia asked as she sat on her chair, turning to look at him.

"Yeah." He told her. "Son of a bitch stole almost 5 million and thought he would never get caught."

"Don't they always?" Juvia smiled and turned to her computer, logging it in, leaving Gray to rest.

He had other ideas, though. "Why did it take three months for you to come here, by the way?"

Juvia froze for a second before continue to look through the files she brought with her. "Not my story to tell."

She thought the answer would satisfy him, but he kept talking. "Not your story to tell? It's three months. Were you in a mission?"

Swirling her chair into his direction, she saw that he was on his stomach, looking at her in question. Saying she had been in a mission sure would make him stop asking questions, but she didn't want to start at FT telling lies. "The only thing Juvia can tell is that she was in the hospital for a while and then she had to take care of a few things."

His eyes were wide. "You are telling me that you spending time at the hospital is not your story to tell?"

"That's right."

"Unbelievable." Gray shook his head. "Are you alright, though?" She looked confused. "After this time you spent at the hospital – are you alright?"

"Yes" She smiled gently. "It's alright now."

"Good." Gray nodded and finally put his head down, using his arms as a pillow. "Wake me up when Cana decides it's time to go to the bar. I know better than to skip that."

#

Juvia woke Gray up when Cana knocked on her door to let her know they were leaving in five minutes and Juvia thanked her for the reminder – she had been so absorbed with her files that she lost track of time. He had actually fallen asleep and when he woke up Gray mumbled something about women getting better couches and it was sexist before going to his office for a few minutes

After logging off the system and locking her office with the keycard she had, Juvia waited as Cana gathered her belongings. When everyone – there were people Juvia hadn't even met yet – was gathered at the common area, they left together, Gajeel one of the last and Juvia waited so she could be with her friend

The Fairy Tail bar was full, apparently it was a huge success and with reason: the bar was spacious, the waiters seemed to be very attentive, the music was very good and there was even a designed place for people to dance. The best part was that FT had an exclusive large table and any employee could get inside without waiting in line.

All the tension from earlier had vanish as everyone laughed and ordered drinks when the lights went off, only a couple of lights stayed on so people wouldn't panic. Juvia almost reached for the gun inside her purse, but relaxed when people around her started to clap.

Lucy, who was seated by Juvia's side, touched the blunette's elbow and pointed. "There's a stage over there!" The moment the words left her lips, the lights of the stage went on and there was a woman with a guitar, sitting on a chair.

She was beautiful, white hair falling in waves reaching her waist, her bangs were tied up and the dress she wore showed a lot of her legs – which were spectacular, if Juvia dared to say. When the woman started to sing, she sounded like an angel.

Everyone started to yell 'Mira!' or 'Mirajane!' and Juvia was shocked. When she talked to Master Makarov to join Fairy Tail, one of the conditions was that both Juvia and Gajeel had to go to meet a psychiatrist at least once a week and told them her name was Mirajane Strauss (Juvia was surprised, just like Erza, Mirajane had one hell of a reputation.

Juvia hadn't connected the dots before, but Mirajane wasn't a very common name and Lisanna looks so much like the woman at the stage, that their blood connection would be no surprise.

So that was Mirajane Strauss.

FT wouldn't stop surprising her, would it?

The next thing she knows the boys are fighting each other (in a friendly manner, she checked) and the girls were chatting excitedly. Mirajane, then changed the ballad and started to sing much more upbeat tone.

Juvia didn't see the time pass as she talked with Lucy, Cana and Lisanna, drinking and laughing and then Erza joined them alongside with Laki and Biska, whom Juvia got introduced. She never had such a fun night before.

It was after midnight when they decided to call it a night and go home. The large group went out the door and said their good-byes as they took cabs and ride alongs. Juvia lived four blocks away and wouldn't need it, especially that she didn't have much to drink.

"Do you want me to take you home?" Gajeel asked her.

"No need." Juvia smiled to her friend. "We are going to opposite sides of the town. Juvia's apartment is close. Drive safe." She told him and he nodded. The only reason she let him drive his motorcycle was because he hadn't had a drink all night, otherwise he would be getting inside one of those cabs.

Once everyone was at their designated means of transport, the only ones left were her and Gray.

"Where do you live?" He asked her. "I can call you a cab."

"No need. Juvia will just walk." She pointed over her shoulder. "Just a few blocks this way."

"Me too. I'll walk with you." Gray said and they started to walk. They stayed in silence during the length of the first block, then, he asked: "How do you like the nut house we call it FT Security?"

Juvia chuckled. "Juvia has never met such lively people before. All of you are very kind and willing to help."

"Yeah." Gray shrugged. "None of us had the best history in the world, so we know how it is to be alone. Mirajane says we try to help people so they don't have to go through what we did."

She looked at him in surprise. "Mirajane? She is the psychiatrist of more people in FT?"

Gray snorted. "Oh yeah. She probes inside all of our heads. The old man makes us see her at least once a week if we are not in a mission. To keep us saner, I guess. You'll have your turn soon. Prepare some tissues for that first session."

It wasn't as if Juvia hid her feelings, she was very open about them, actually. Well, most of them. If she probed about her childhood, things could get ugly.

"Wow." Gray said, looking at her. "You must have some real dark secrets if your face lost all color like that."

"It's fine." Juvia waved him off and tried to change the subject from her. "Did you need those tissues for the first session."

"Perhaps." Gray looked at the path in front of them. "I turn to the next left. What about you? I can take you there before I go home."

"Oh no, Juvia is on the next left as well." Juvia tried to hide her smile.

"What?" He asked in surprise and she just shrugged. Once they turned left, Juvia said. "Well, Juvia was looking for somewhere close to FT and to someone she knew..." They stopped in the middle of the street and she turned to look at him; she pointed to the building behind her. "This is where Juvia lives."

"But I live in this one." Gray pointed behind him, confused with the situation.

"Yeap. Juvia told you before: if you don't want to be found, don't use your real name." She grinned and grabbed her keys from her purse. "Good night, Gray-sama."

When she opened the front door of her building, she heard his voice. "This is very weird!" Gray yelled at her.

She laughed aloud and yelled back from over her shoulder: "Juvia knows!"

#

A couple of days later, Juvia was at her office typing what happened in her last mission when she heard a knock on the door and told the person to come in, distracted.

"You know, I saw you looking when I was doing pull-ups this morning." She looked up and saw Gray leaning on the doorway, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. After that night, he realized that Juvia also had her apartment at the same floor as his and their windows faced each other's.

"Oh, Juvia knows you saw." She smiled. "Yet, you kept going."

"I needed to reach 100. It's not nice to spy on your neighbors." Gray scolded her and the blunette laughed.

"You should tell this to Mrs Moretti, as well, then."

"Who?" Gray was confused.

"She lives above me. Your pull-ups are her entertainment." Juvia informed him. "Her kids are off to college, her husband has lost interest... Seeing you like that every morning is the closest thing she'll get to sex."

Gray blinked a few times. "Good to know: I'm closing my curtains from now on."

"Such a waste." She sighed. "But why are you here?"

"Master asked me and you to look into an old friend of an old friend's company. Apparently, the son hired a team that it is not good enough and just last week they got a bomb threat." He gave her a folder with the information. "Gajeel is out on a solo mission, Natsu is out with a stomach thing... So you and I are teaming up."

"Great." Juvia looked over the files briefly. "When's the meeting with the client?"

"3 p.m." Gray told her. "Master said that this time I'm in charge. You'll get the next one."

"Alright." Gray took it as the conversation was over and turned around to leave, but she called him and he stopped. "Just so you know, Juvia does her yoga around seven in the afternoon and she doesn't close the curtains."

Gray groaned and started to leave again. "Shut up."

"Juvia doesn't mind if you look!" She said loud enough for him to listen and she laughed when she was alone again. Why pretend? She thought he was handsome, he did look magnificent when doing pull-ups and she watched it shamelessly. The quid pro quo there was for him to know she too did some exercise and she didn't mind if he saw it.

Her phone rang and Juvia answered. "Juvia Lockser."

"Slut." It was Cana's voice, she was calling from her desk outside.

"You heard that?" Juvia suddenly felt her cheeks burn. "Sorry."

"Oh, don't mind me. I told you: information is my weapon of choice. The 'slut' was totally a compliment, though." Juvia chuckled with her secretary's words "You just can't do subtle with the men in this firm. It's possible that you are dry humping one of them and they are still clueless."

"Go to work, Cana."

"No, I mean it. One time, I was..."

"I'm hanging up..." Juvia said and put the phone back in place, chuckling.

#

The client was an old man, around their Master 's age and he had been listening very carefully to what Gray and Juvia were saying about how many security breaches they found just on their way to the man's office and he seemed inclined to consider FT.

His son, though, was a nightmare. He kept saying how the one he hired was better and cheaper and how he was going to be the head of the Company and he should make the decisions.

While father and son were discussing, Juvia whispered to Gray: "He will listen to the son if we don't do something."

"I know." Gray scowled. "But what can we do?"

Juvia thought for a moment and then an idea came to mind. It was crazy, she could end up in jail if it went wrong, but what the hell... She was from FT now. "Juvia has an idea. Just roll with it." She couldn't give more details because father and son were returning.

"I'm sorry." Mr. Arata senior said. I promised my old friend that I would hear you out, but I don't believe we need more security."

"We understand." Juvia smiled and got up as if to shake hands with the older man. "So, me, getting in here with a gun," she took the gun from her purse and pointed right into Arata's Senior forehead "that was on purpose?"

Arata Jr yelled security and Juvia didn't bother looking away as some poorly trained agents entered the room, instead she stared at the older man in the eyes. "You need better security, sir. If I could get in with this, someone else can too."

"Take that bitch down!" Arata Jr yelled.

"You see, she's new at our firm." Gray, who didn't move from his spot on the couch, looked as if they were discussing the weather, told the agents pointing guns at him. "I'm her boss, but she's still a little trigger happy and I can't foresee what she will do." Gray's eyes shifted to Arata Jr's. "I'd be careful to what you tell her."

Oh, her boss wasn't he? Juvia smirked. "Not trigger happy, sir. Just happy; the trigger comes with the job."

"Shoot her!" Arata Jr said it again, in panic.

"Shut up, Kenji!" Arata Senior said. "She's not going to hurt me – her gun is probably without bullets. They are trying to make a point and they have made it." Arata took a step back and Juvia pulled her gun away. "We will hire FT to fix our problems. I like people with guts and they have it."

Juvia saw Gray get up from the couch and offer Arata Senior his hand to shake. "We will get in touch with you, sir."

"Of course." Arata said and Juvia felt Gray's hand on her lower back, urging her to leave the room. Just before she went through the door, though, she stopped and turned around.

"Oh, Mr. Arata?" He looked at her as she took out the clip from her SIG and showed it to him that it was full. "I'm never without bullets."

The older man let out a bark of laughter. "Gutsy indeed! Feisty girl. Very feisty."

Once they were inside the elevator, alone, Gray turned to face her. "Are you crazy? They could've shot us! They could place charges!"

"Juvia thought it was what we did in FT." She shrugged innocently and Gray opened his mouth to argue and when he found no answer back, he closed his mouth and started to chuckle.

"Goddammit, you might work out with us yet."

#

A week later, Lisanna came in Juvia's office and told her to stand up because she was going to take her measurements to the parade. And when asked what parade was that, Lisanna started to talk about the charity work the firm made every week.

They would close the street, for a parade where the employees of the establishments there would dress up with costumes and all money they made would go straight to an orphanage not too far away. The children also went to see the parade. It was a tradition that went back decades and that year, Juvia would participate as well.

"Mira and Cana decide on the costumes." Lisanna informed while checking for Juvia's chest size. "We have all kinds of costumes in storage. You'll get something as well and it will fit just fine."

"But-but..." Juvia tried to say, but Lisanna waved her off.

"No buts. Trust me, this project is my sister's baby. She loves it more than she loves me and you don't want to cross her right now."

And just as sudden she arrived, Lisanna left and Cana took her place inside the office.

"It's fun. We have two days until the real deal. Tomorrow we'll have some contests, games, baking sales, this types of things. I put your name on the 'Miss Fairy Tail' contest, by the way."

"Cana-san!" Juvia complained.

"What? Everyone is participating! It'll raise money for the kids. Think of the children, Juvia." What could Juvia argue with that line of thinking? Cana explained how things would go and Juvia had time to prepare herself, thankfully.

So, the next morning she picked her prettiest dress, the bad with what she would need for the contest and went to the Fairy Tail bar, and it was even more crowded than usual – and it was lunchtime yet.

"It sure is crowded." Juvia said with a smile on her face when she found Gray and Lucy in the middle of the bar.

"I can't believe there are so many people in this city." Lucy said, looking around.

"In order to watch the Fantasia Parade, many people have traveled here from other cities." Gray explained. "You'll participate, you'll see."

"Speaking of participating, the Miss Fairy Tail contest will be starting soon!" Lucy said and ran off. Gray laughed at her and Juvia felt the green-eyed monster inside her. It wasn't as if she didn't like Lucy – she liked the blonde quite a bit – she just didn't want her anywhere near close Gray.

"Juvia won't lose to Lucy." Juvia said, her eyes narrowing.

"You're joining... too?" Gray asked, looking at her weirdly.

"Yes." Juvia nodded and her curls bounced – she had spent extra time in front of the mirror to make it pretty. "Cana-san signed Juvia up, but now Juvia really wants to participate."

Gray sighed. "I will never understand friendship between women."

#

"People of Magnolia Town and visitors from neighboring cities!" Juvia heard and she felt nervous. Beauty contests were never her thing. She was fast with a gun, she could kill a man with her hands, but modeling had never been in her mind. She wasn't ugly, but she worked with some very beautiful women and sure she would come last. Well, she wasn't going to quit now. "The moment you've been waiting for! The beautiful Fairies of Fairy Tail will take the stage! So, without further ado, let the Miss Fairy Tail Contest... Begin! Your host tonight will be none other than myself, Max!" He was one of the IT guys, Juvia remembered.

She saw as Cana entered the stage and people cheered for her, her bikini was green and it suited her very well. Why did Juvia have to be second? Everyone would compare them, she thought as Cana walked around the stage. Juvia sighed and looked to her heavy dark coat.

Sooner than she wanted, Cana returned backstage, giving Juvia thumbs up. "The second contestant, a newcomer. A Fairy of Water, demure like a gentle rain, Juvia Lockser!" They must've searched the meaning of her name. She kind of liked being the Fairy Of Water.

Juvia walked on the stage with the heavy coat. She stopped, turned around from the audience and then opened it, letting it fall off her shoulders, but not entirely and the crowd cheered when she smirked. Feeling a little more secure, Juvia turned to the audience and let the coat fall on the floor, showing everyone her purple bikini with white polka dots and the crowd went wild.

"Gray-sama, are you watching?" Juvia whispered to herself, as she was unable to see anyone with the lights pointing at her direction. She wanted him to see that she was beautiful too. Even if they worked with a hundred beautiful women, she was just as pretty.

She left the stage after grabbing her coat back and met with Cana, who hugged her while laughing. "You looked so hot! That stunt with the coat was magnificent. You make me proud!"

"Thanks." Juvia's cheeks got warmer. "Juvia just wants to put some clothes now. Just go around in a bikini when we're not in a pool or at the beach feels weird."

"Come on, there's a bathroom back there." Cana said and led the way.

While they were walking, Juvia bumped into a woman with light brown hair and wearing glasses. The blunette turned to apologize and then turned back, just to see Cana's eyes wide open in surprise. Before she could do anything, Juvia felt pain on the back of her head and the world went black around her.

#

She woke up with her head throbbing in an annoying way and female voices all around her. She moaned and heard a familiar voice say: "She's waking up too!"

"Good!"

Juvia opened her eyes and it took her a moment before she could understand what had happened; someone had hit her on the back of her neck. No, not someone, that bitch with glasses.

"Come on, sit up." Juvia saw Lisanna and accepted the white haired woman a hand to help her sit down. "Don't do anything too sudden or you might get nauseous."

"What happened?" Juvia asked, seeing that there were only women plus Master Makarov at the room. The others continued to talk while Juvia tried to make sense of her world once again.

"What happened? I'll tell you what happened." Cana was clearly furious. "Master Supreme of Dickheads, also known as Laxus Dreyar, never grew out of his emo phase and now joined it with his rebellious phase and is gone complete psycho."

Juvia blinked two times. "None of those words makes sense to me."

"Laxus, Master's grandson is making us fight one another. He's saying something about building a better FT with the people who survives. He wants it to only have skilled people to make more money." Lisanna explained. "Some of our people are already fighting because he had us girls as hostages."

"Oh." That's why she was hit. With Lisanna's help, she got up from the floor and saw that besides Makarov, there were two other males: Natsu and Gajeel.

Natsu was finishing talking: "All I'm saying is... don't be too harsh on the guy, okay, old man?" Makarov looked so proud of the pink haired man until the next words came out of his mouth: "Let's start the battle of FT round 2! Who wants to try me, huh?" He said to the girls, who just shoved Natsu away. "Come on, bring on the battle."

"Please..." Lucy whined. "Coming from you, it's hard to tell if you're joking or not."

"Hell, if you really want to, I wouldn't mind giving you a round, though." Cana said with a smile.

"Don't encourage him, Cana" Bisca scolded, just like the mother she was. Fortunately little Asuka had been visiting her husband's parents and wasn't in Magnolia.

"Come on, let's go for it, Lucy!" Natsu ran after the blonde who ran away yelling no while everyone else laughed.

Gajeel went to stand next to Juvia and he had a peculiar look on his eyes. "What's wrong, Gajeel-kun?" Juvia asked.

"Nothing." He answered her, fast.

He did not have to tell her, though. She understood. FT was complete insane, but there never were a boring moment.

"they are a lot of fun, aren't they?" Juvia asked, sweetly.

"They're fucking crazy." Gajeel answered and Juvia chuckled.

"So, here's the plan." Master took over. "Laxus had Freed locking FT with our Omega level security and no one can access the fifth floor, where he is. But Levy here is even smarter than Freed is and she is willing to try and overrun its commands." He pointed to the petite blue haired woman. "Natsu and Gajeel, you are the ones who can beat him. Mira, I assume you want to go find your brother, otherwise I'd send you."

"Yes, Master." The white haired woman nodded.

"Very well. The others," Master looked at them, "Laxus hired some help for this, but I have no doubt they are not even a match for you." He looked proud of his team.

"Can ya hear me, old man? And everyone from FT too?" An unknown voice to Juvia spoke from the speakers around the bar. "It looks like we've lost one of ours rules so I'm going to instate a new one so was to keep this battle of Fairy Tail moving, I've activated the Hall of Thunder." Master seemed shocked. "Only half an hour remain, Do you think you can defeat us? Or will you play nice and retire? Master." The last word was said in mockery, followed by laughter.

"What on Earth are you thinking, Laxus?" Master said, his face red with anger. "Are you trying to kill us?" Makarov groaned and grabbed his chest, clearly in pain.

"Old man!" Natsu yelled.

"What is wrong?" Lucy questioned as Master fell to his knees.

Mirajane was already running. "This is bad, he needs his medicine!"

"At a time like this..." Biska said, trying to help the old man and massaging his chest.

"Master, get a hold of yourself, please!" Levy tried.

"What is the 'Hall of Thunder'?" Natsu yelled, but all Makarov could do was groan in pain. "Old Man!"

A few moments later Mirajane returned with the medication and gave it to him just before Master lost consciousness. Juvia only realized she had Gajeel's hand when he tug it away from her so he could talk to Natsu, mostly like about Makarov's wishes of having them fighting Natsu.

"Hall of Thunder is FT's highest level of security." Mirajane explained to them. "It should never be used. When the countdown is over, the air ducts will release a drug to put everyone to sleep and if not treated in ten minutes, it leads to death. The last Master put it on the building a long time ago and it can't be removed otherwise it activates every other supply and closes all the exits of the buildings. Basically, Laxus just activated our self-destruction button."

Juvia's eyes were wide. No boring day indeed.

#

After dividing their tasks, the women went separated ways to try to take as many thugs as they could and if possible one of the Raijinshuu, Laxus' team. Juvia and Cana rode the elevator until the fourth floor where Juvia had guns and so did Cana.

Thankfully they didn't meet anyone on their way up and after Cana got her SIG from underneath her table, Juvia went in her office to grab his own weapons when suddenly the door closed behind them.

Juvia grabbed her keycard and swiped, but it's access was denied. She tried again and the answer was the same. She didn't like that.

The phone rang and both women looked at each other before Cana punched the 'speaker'. "Who's this?"

"There's just one rule to come out of this room: leaving if forbidden until one or other of the occupants is rendered unable to fight." Said another unknown voice to Juvia, but Cana groaned a 'Freed' and Juvia assumed it was the man's name.

His words finally sank in and Cana looked up to Juvia with wide eyes and surprised. Juvia thought it over three times before whispering: "Until one of us is rendered unable to fight?"

"I'll take on the winner myself, whenever you are ready." His voice came from the phone.

"That's dirty, Freed! If you want to fight one-on-one, that's fine by me! I'll take you on!" Cana yelled, furious. "So, let us out of here already!"

Juvia was feeling sick. "Making comrades fight one another like this..."

"Or what?" Cana continued to yell to the phone. "Are you too scared to take both of us on at once? Is that it? Terrified of a couple of girls, are you? Pretty pathetic of you, huh, Freed?" Juvia watched as Cana's face went red with anger.

It took a moment, but he answered. "I am merely attempting to limit the number of people I am forced to kill to the best of my ability."

"The fuck was that?"

Juvia thought of her options and they weren't good: the door was reinforced and they couldn't break it. Plus, Juvia didn't think she could hack into the system and unlock them. That left with this Freed's person word.

"I suppose this leaves us no choice." Juvia muttered, but Cana heard and looked up to Juvia in disbelief.

"Juvia... you..."

"Freed-san." Juvia said. "You promise that once one of us is incapacitated, you will fight the other like a man?" The blunette asked, looking for something inside her second drawer.

"I am not the kind of a man who breaks his own rules."

"Good." Juvia reached for her gun an pointed it at Cana, just to keep her away while she searched for what she needed.

"Are you serious, Juvia? If we go at it here and now, we'll just be doing exactly what he wants!" Cana exclaimed and the blunette could see her hand going to her back pocket, where she had put her gun.

Finally finding what she needed, Juvia put her own SIG on the table and held two big tasers. She looked into Cana's eyes. "If I have to hurt someone, If I have to injury a friend, then it may as well be myself."

Before Cana could protest, Juvia turned both tasers on and at the same time, she tasered herself right under her collarbones and for a second time that day, she let blackness surround her.

#

The second time she woke up, she was lying on something comfortable. Her whole body ached and she didn't want to get up, but had little choice; she needed to know what had happened to Cana.

"Easy." It was Cana's voice that made Juvia's eyes open.

"Cana-san!" Juvia managed to breathe out. "Are you alright?" The brunette seemed a little worse for wear, but otherwise seemed to be uninjured.

"Me? What on Earth were you thinking?" Cana said, mad at the blunette. "You could've died!"

Juvia tried to shrug, but her muscles complained. "Juvia just wanted to make you all accept her as a true member of FT." Her eyes watered. "Juvia loves you guys so much."

"Of course you are one of us!" Cana all but yelled. "There was never any question about that!"

"Oh." It was Juvia's answer and the next thing she knew, Cana had her arms around her in a tight hug.

"Don't you fucking do this again, you stupid woman." Cana sobbed.

Juvia was in shock for a moment before also wrapping her arms around her friend.

"Did we win, by the way?" Juvia asked and Cana laughed.

"Yeah, we won."

#

The day after the Battle of Fairy Tail, at the Fantasia Parade, Juvia was surprised to see her costume. Not even when she was a child she dreamt of being a princess, but Mirajane had given the very ornamented dress and told her to put it on because she was going on the top of one of the cars.

While changing, Juvia couldn't help but to feel sad about the outcome of the previous day: Master had to banish his own grandson from the firm. That had to hurt so very much to everyone who knew Laxus before he did the things he did. And it had all been about making more money. They had something really good going on and greediness tried to destroy it.

Thankfully, FT was stronger than that.

After putting the dress on, Juvia saw that she wouldn't be able to cover the burns where she was tasered and sighed. At least if he was in one of the cars, no one would notice. She put her tiara and looked herself on the mirror and she suddenly felt better.

It was weird, she wasn't a girl who liked girly things while growing up, but that dress and that tiara were making her feel like a little girl all over again. Maybe Mirajane was a better psychiatrist than she gave her credit for.

What really surprised her though, was seeing Gray with a prince costume coming her way. "I swear to god, Mira gets worse each year. A prince? Seriously?"

Juvia smiled. "Juvia guesses we are teaming up on this one?"

"Yeah." He sighed in defeat. "Come on, let's find our car. It's not too hard, it has a big ass castle on it."

She giggled and halfway through the way, they were stopped by a group of little girls who were awing Juvia.

"Are you a princess?" One of he girls asked, eyes wide in reverence.

Not sure if what to do, Juvia nodded and smiled. "Yes. Yes, I am."

"Wooow!" They said together and both grown-ups chuckled.

"What are those?" The little girl with pig tails asked, pointing to the wounds under Juvia's collarbones.

Caught. Damn.

Trying to gain more time, Juvia kneeled in front of the girls. "These?" She pointed at the burns and the girls nodded. "Well, these are battle scars, of course."

They seemed confused. "But princesses don't go to battles."

"Oh, we do. How else are we supposed to keep the kingdom safe?" Juvia asked the girls. "Princesses have their own battles too and sometimes it leaves scars." The little girls' eyes were wide.

"Aren't you her prince?" The first little girl asked Gray. "Why didn't you help her?"

"Nah, she didn't need my help." Gray shrugged. "When I got there she had saved herself. Let me tell you a secret," he leaned over and whispered. "princes take a while to arrive, so princesses need to help themselves out of trouble." He winked and the girls nodded. "Now go back to your parents. Prince's orders."

The girls waved and each gave a kiss on Juvia's cheek before running away back into the crowd. Gray offered Juvia a hand so she could get up and she was smiling so wide she almost hurt herself. "You were adorable with them."

"I'm never adorable." Gray rolled his eyes.

Juvia looked at him in his prince clothes and it just hit her that she was falling in love with him. It wasn't a crush anymore, she was falling too fast and nothing in her life prepared her for it. Not like that. Not with that intensity.

She was so fucked.

"Now, let me explain about this thing we are gonna do in the middle of the Parade." Gray's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "It means 'Even if I can't see where you are, I'm always watching you' and we're doing it for Laxus..."

#