"Be nice, alright?" Juvia told Gajeel when she saw the group of friends not too far away from them at the Magnolia's Fair and the tall man rolled his eyes. Juvia decided to bring Gajeel to meet them in an attempt to socialize him a bit more; he spent all his time at the junkyard and it wasn't good for him.

"I won't promise anything." He told her, grumpy as always.

Juvia stopped in front of him and put a hand on his chest to halt him. "Gajeel-kun." His red eyes focused on her. "Juvia really likes them; they are very nice and funny. And it would mean a lot to me if you and Gray-sama got along." Gajeel opened his mouth to say something but she cut him before he could say a word. "Juvia is not asking for you two to become best friends forever, just to be polite. I... I really like him. The past few weeks have been great and if this... whatever it is Gray-sama and I have, is to go forward, I need you two to at least be nice to each other."

Gajeel stared at her for a moment. "Last time I didn't trust my gut when you introduced me to Bora and I let..." He gritted his teeth. "I will be the judge if I'll be nice or not."

The blunette sighed. "Bora wasn't your fault, it was mine. I am the one who didn't see what he was."

"But when you introduced him to me, I knew there was something shady about him and-"

Juvia shook her head. "Thinking about it won't change anything. The past is in the past and you'll see Gray-sama is nothing like him, alright? You'll see. And in all fairness, you were the one who told Juvia to go after him." She looked at him pointedly."

After a moment of silence, Gajeel nodded. "Fine. But if I notice something wrong with him..."

"Yes, yes, you tell me." She rolled her eyes. "Remember to be nice." Her only answer was a grunt from him, but it was enough to understand he'd try.

They got closer to the group of people and the first to notice her was Lucy; the blonde smiled her way and looked over her shoulder, said something and looked back to where they were.

"Hi!" Lucy, perky as always, waved in their direction. "We were waiting for you so we can go to the rides."

Juvia gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

"It's fine." She waved her worries off and then looked at Gajeel, next to Juvia and the blonde raised her eyebrows with the sight. Gajeel, was, to say the least, something to look at with how tall he was, long black hair, pierced eyebrows and nose plus his dark clothes. "Well, hello." Gajeel looked at her up and down and grunted, making the blonde frown. "Not very talkative, is he?"

"Not really." Juvia smiled. "This is Juvia's friend, Gajeel. Gajeel-kun, this is Lucy-san." Seeing the familiar pink shade in the corner of her eye, she looked up and saw Natsu coming their way. "And that is Natsu-san, Lucy-san's boyfriend."

"What's up." Natsu stopped next to his girlfriend and raised his chin towards Gajeel in a way of greeting. "Natsu Dragneel."

When he didn't answer, Juvia elbowed him on the ribs. "Gajeel Redfox."

Natsu nodded looked in Juvia's direction. "Gray's coming, he was buying tickets for the rides."

"We'll go meet him." The blunette said and waved good-bye, promising to find them when she met Gray. Once they were a few feet away, Juvia whispered to him: "You need to be a little bit more than that sociable, Gajeel-kun."

"I hate when you change me into your social work." He rolled his eyes and Juvia smiled, her gaze sweeping the small crowd while looking for Gray.

"Juvia just wants you to not be lonely, Gajeel-kun." She shrugged. "Now, where's Gray-sama?" They stopped walking and she got on the tip of her toes while looking for him. The moment she finally found him, she smiled. Gray was just a bit straight ahead, wearing a black coat typing something on his phone. "Come on, found him!"

She didn't even wait for Gajeel to follow her, just walked in his direction and once she was close enough, she called him. "Gray-sama!"

Gray looked over his shoulder and a beautiful smiled spread on his face when he saw her. He turned around just in time to catch her when she threw herself on him, his arms around her waist and she gave him a peck on the lips.

"Hi." She said, smiling, while her fingers playing with the short hair behind his neck.

"You are late." He told her, trying to look stern, but his eyes were soft.

"Sorry." Juvia told him. "Now come on, there's someone you have to meet." Juvia pulled Gray by the hand to where Gajeel stood a few feet behind. "Gray-sama, this is Gajeel-kun, my friend."

Gray stared at the other man for a moment before offering his hand. "Gray Fullbuster, nice to meet you."

Gajeel measured Gray for a few seconds, looked up and down and finally shook Gray's hand. "Gajeel Redfox."

"I've heard a lot about you." Gray told him. "Juvia is all praises."

Gajeel snorted. "Same with you. 'Ah, Gajeel-kun, his smile is sooooo dreamy, he's so handsome'." He mimicked Juvia's voice and the blunette could feel her cheeks get warmer.

Juvia gasped, not even daring to look in Gray's direction. "Gajeel-kun!"

"After that first date of yours, she called me and let me tell ya-" The long haired man continued until the blunette slapped his upper arm. "Hey."

"Oh my god, stop embarrassing me." Juvia hissed.

"You told me to be sociable." Gajeel said, looking at her pointedly and he tried to look innocent. "I am just doing what you asked me to and finding something to talk about. Besides, I like embarrassing you."

"Well, find something else to talk about." She said between gritted teeth.

His only answer was to snort and shrug. "I tried."

Juvia turned to look at Gray and he was clearly trying to contain his laughter and her face couldn't be hotter. "I am so sorry. He lacks his manners." She narrowed her eyes at her friend before look back to Gray. "Can we please talk about something else?"

"We'll come back to that later, Gajeel. I want to know more about that phone call." Gray joked and Juvia looked at him in incredulity and he chuckled before his attention returned to Gajeel. "Come on, let's meet the rest of the gang. They are crazy, but well... you look like you are crazy yourself, so you'll just fit in." Gray shrugged.

The blunette looked to her friend to see his reaction and was pleased to see him snorting. "What the hell, right? Might as well see with whom Juvia spends her time now." Gajeel put his hands in his pants' pockets. "I'll go get tickets for some rides. Be right back."

"It's over there." Gray pointed towards a small shed. "I bought mine and Juvia's."

"Be right back." Gajeel said and walked away.

The moment they were alone, Gray stepped closer to Juvia from behind and said in a low voice: "So, my smile is dreamy, is it?"

Juvia almost jumped when she heard the words and turned around to look at him and she was sure her face was red. "Don't listen to Gajeel-kun. He is only trying to embarrass Juvia."

He raised an eyebrow. "So... he was lying."

"No." Juvia whispered and looked down. "Juvia told him that."

"Good to know." Gray said before leaning and kissing her softly on the lips and she smiled, during their time in public he rarely was the one to show affection first. "I need to talk to him and find out some embarrassing stories about you."

Juvia groaned. "Gosh, I really shouldn't have introduced the two of you. What are you gonna do? Compare notes?"

"Perhaps." He shrugged. "I'll get some tips. He's known you since you were a kid."

"Yes." She agreed. "But anything you need to know, just ask Juvia and she'll give you a straight answer."

"Deal." Gray smirked. "But I think it's only fair I get to know someone that has been in your life for a while. I am sure Cana, Lucy, Erza and all the girls are overexcited to absolutely tell you everything about me. Things even I probably don't know about myself."

It was Juvia's turn to giggle. "Maybe."

"Fair is fair." He said. "Come on, let's go find Gajeel and then the others, Cana was after you to go with her to the teacups ride, or whatever? I don't know, she looked drunk and if you go swirling in that thing with her, get ready to get thrown up at."

Juvia wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Great. There's that to look forward to." Gray smiled and both walked hand to hand to where Gajeel was.

#

To the blunette's surprise, it seemed Gajeel fit right with the boys, challenging them to win the games at the fair and even Gray had been swept in the competition and by the end of the night every girl in the group had earned a stuffed animal. Cana was surprisingly good at the shooting booth even though she was clearly drunk and earned two stuffed animals, so, of course all the boys plus Erza wanted to beat her.

In overall, it was a great night and it had been such a long time since she had seen Gajeel have fun with someone other than herself, she felt she could cry in happiness.

After saying their good-byes to the group, Juvia and Gajeel got a ride with Gray to her apartment. The long haired man even shook Gray's hand before going towards Juvia's building, giving the couple some privacy.

Once he was out of earshot, Juvia finally wrapped her arms around Gray's middle and he put his arms around her as well; with their friends by their side all the time, he preferred not to show much affection. Juvia tip toed and kissed him, to which Gray quickly reciprocate in kind and she hoped he had missed being alone with her just as much she did with him.

"Thank you for today." She whispered when they broke the kiss.

Gray frowned in confusion. "Thanks for what?"

"Welcoming Gajeel-kun like you did." Juvia said. "He can be really awkward with people that aren't, well, me. And that's only because I've known him for years."

"He's nice." Gray told her and Juvia's look of disbelief made him chuckle. "Not nice nice, but cool to hang out with. Seeing him and Natsu trying to outdo one another at those games was hilarious."

"You played as well." Juvia smiled.

"Well, they did say I couldn't win a stuffed animal." Gray pointed out. "My honor was at stake."

"And Juvia loved her stuffed octopus, thank you very much." She chuckled and looked to the item in question inside the car next to her purse; it was pink, in a chibi version and pretty much the cutest thing ever. "Did you know that the oldest known octopus' fossil belongs to an animal that lived 296 million years ago, during the ?" She told him excitedly. "And that they have three hearts?"

Gray laughed. "I knew it was the right choice for you instead of a bear or something."

"It was, yes." Juvia kissed him again and they stayed like that for a few minutes before she sighed and broke the kiss. "Juvia has to go upstairs."

"Alright." Gray agreed.

She was about to let go of him, but thought it better; they had something to talk about. "Gray-sama." He looked at her. "Gajeel-kun spends some nights here when it's too late for him to catch the bus or he appears out of nowhere and takes a nap."

"Okay?" Gray frowned in confusion with her words, clearly not getting her meaning.

"Juvia knows the circumstances of which you found out about your ex." His body tensed and she bit her lower lip before speaking again. "Juvia just wants to tell you that Gajeel-kun does spend a night or two here and my couch doesn't fit him, so he just sleeps next to me."

"I see." It was his answer and she didn't know what to make of that.

"It's just like two siblings sleeping on the same bed." She told him. "Juvia told you he is her only family, she never thought of him in any other way." Gray's body relaxed a bit, but not fully. "I just don't want you to think I am hiding something, because I'm not, and I'd hate for you to get the wrong impression."

It took Gray a moment to nod and answer. "I understand." Juvia looked at him with suspicion. "I do, really. I was just caught by surprise with the mention of what happened with Daphne and it brought some bad memories. I got to watch you two today and it's just like any other siblings I know, teasing each other and worried." He cleared his throat. "Thank you for telling me."

"Are you sure you understand?" She asked.

"Sure." He shrugged. "I have two siblings myself and a lot of annoying friends, I had to share beds too. Just... please understand if I suddenly have a frown or whatever; like I said: bad memories."

"Of course." The blunette nodded and caressed his forearm. "Just so you know, Juvia will never do anything like that. Ever. Juvia knows how much it hurt and you are the last person she'd want to hurt."

Gray seemed to consider her words before nodding in agreement. "Alright." He gave her a peck on the lips. "I'll see you tomorrow at lunchtime?"

"Sure." She told him.

"And don't forget there's that party Friday and the Finale the Friday after that. Cana said she better see all of us there at that party otherwise we'll have to deal with her." Gray made a disgusted face. "I hate when she days that, because I know she'll go through with it. And she said to bring Gajeel too."

Juvia smiled. "Okay, I'll talk to him." She reached inside the car to get her purse and stuffed octopus. "Good-night, Gray-sama."

"Good-night." He said and watched her until she opened the door to her building and waved when she got in and then closed the door.

#

"So... what do you think of Gray-sama?" Juvia asked when she slid to the bed next to her friend. Gajeel was taking a shower when Juvia got to her apartment and she went in right after him so she didn't ask before then.

Gajeel shrugged. "He seems decent enough. I'll keep an eye on him, but I didn't get any weird feelings coming from him or his weird friends." He looked at her, confused. "They... seem actually nice."

Juvia smiled softly to her friend. "We see so much ugliness in the world that sometimes when people are nice to us, we don't understand why." She shrugged. "The reason is that some people are just like that: nice."

He agreed with a hum and Juvia looked through her texts on her phone. After a minute, Gajeel spoke. "Juvia?" She made a sound to indicate she was listening. "What's the name of that girl with blue hair? The small one."

The blunette frowned and looked to her friend. "Levy-san?"

"Yeah, that's her." Gajeel crossed his arms over his chest and he was thinking hard. "Could you... uh... apologize to her for me?" Juvia's frown deepened and Gajeel explained. "You know I... you know words aren't my thing. They get all scrambled." She agreed. "But today I was an ass to her when she asked if the letters were too small on the tickets because I was squinting at them." He looked down in clear shame. "It wasn't nothing much, just a silly question, probably so I wouldn't be out of place while waiting in line or whatever, but..."

"You got defensive." Juvia said and he nodded in agreement. "People don't know you are not good with words just by looking at you, Gajeel-kun. People are going to assume you don't want to read at the moment or that you need glasses, you know that."

"I know." He groaned. "That's why I'm asking you to tell her I'm sorry."

Juvia looked at him, studying her friend and he was looking rather sheepishly and Juvia wondered what was going on with her friend.

"No."

Gajeel stared at her, surprised. "No?"

"No." Juvia decided. "You made the mistake, you were rude so you will be the one to apologize to her."

"When exactly I'll bump into her to apologize?" Gajeel rolled his eyes. "I don't know if you noticed, but we are not in the same circles."

"You are now." Juvia gave him a triumphant smile. "There's a party Friday night and you are going." He opened his mouth to tell her no, but she didn't let him. "Don't even. You are going. You had fun today and you are going to have fun Friday."

Gajeel fell back on the bed and groaned in annoyance. "I shouldn't have given you that advice to go after Gray. My life is getting changed because of that."

"Yes, it is." Juvia chuckled and kissed his cheek. "If you don't want to do it in front of people, Levy-san works at a bookstore downtown, I'll text you the address. Also, she is studying librarianship at the university."

"Of course she is into books and words and letters. Just my luck." Gajeel said with a pained sigh. "Fine. I'll go, since you are being a pain about it."

"You are becoming such a big boy. Mommy is so proud." Juvia put a hand on her chest over her heart and Gajeel snorted and Juvia finally lied down.

"Weirdo."