It is the usual setting inside the guild hall of the famous Fairy Tail. A smell of beer here, few members fighting there, with a demon and a snake girl working as a barmaid. Yes, the usual setting indeed.

However, one noticeable difference is that a certain pair of mages are talking in an unusually low volume. The pair in question is from Team Natsu- without the man himself. That's because let's face it, it will always be noisy if the dragon slayer is around.

"My God, that idiot Natsu did it again! Thanks to him, I basically have no money to pay for rent now!" Lucy restrained much of her voice in irritation.

"Right. I mean, I could cause some property damage but flame-brain is just taking it way too far!" Gray added.

During their last quest, which was just some good old bandit hunting, they basically leveled an entire food market because the fight became a little bit too intense. However, the accusations they placed on him alone aren't justified because all the members are equally responsible for the destruction of the market.

"What if we'll just kick him out of the group? I mean, he's quite old enough to handle himself and I certainly don't need his 'help' with the jobs that we're doing."

"That's appealing and all but I don't think Erza would just kick him for a reason like that. I mean, she's pretty much content with the diminished quest reward as long as it can buy her a strawberry cheesecake."

"But still, we need to somehow remove him from the team!"

Natsu and Happy just took their own pace on going to the guild. Despite the previous job's less than desirable rewards, he didn't mind it unlike his teammates.

That's we he suddenly heard the voices of his teammates from behind the door of the guild. Being a dragon slayer, he clearly heard everything the two have discussed. Normally, his guildmates would just hurl insults at him as a means of playfully fooling around, and he also do it to them in return. But this time, it's different. He can clearly hear that he's not wanted.

He didn't expect that his teammates would feel like that towards him. The friend who he already considered as a brother and the girl whom he saved multiple times before are treating him as just a nuisance. He has yet to hear Erza's opinion but he's sure it's not that different from them.

Happy noticed his sudden frown on his face and confront him with it. "Natsu, what's wrong?"

He stammered a bit on the sudden inquiry of his partner. "N-nothing. Let's get us a quest inside." he said with a grin on his face, trying to ignore what he just heard.

"Yeah, I hope it's something related to fishes!"

"Well guess what? We're going to do just that, and only the two of us!" Natsu replied.

He know that this will be the perfect opportunity to distract himself from the group without anyone noticing what's going on. For all they know, this will be just some bonding time between the old time partners.

But for him, he's planning this setup to be permanent. It's not like he's angered by what he heard, it's just that he learned that their team will not work out if this continues. Plus it's an opportunity to be independent.

"Really! Woohoo! I can't wait to eat them all!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go get that quest!"

" Aye!"

He shrugged off the remaining gloom in his thoughts upon seeing his partner that is willing to be with him all the time. No matter how awful their job went, It's always Happy who'll bring him to high spirits.

As always, they opened the door with vigor and announced their arrival. There are a few gasps from the members inside but nothing too major. They hurried to the quest board to look for quest. As planned, they looked for a quest related to fish.

"Natsu, take a look at this!" Happy pointed at the poster.

Natsu took the poster and read the details of the quest.

"A nest of water drakes, probably hatchlings, suddenly appeared on the lake near a fishing village in the outskirts of Oak town. The drakes are more and more becoming a major threat to the local fishermen of the village."

He didn't bother looking at the quest reward as they're currently not aiming for it right now. To be real, he only bothered looking for a quest reward's amount whenever he is with someone else.

"Hmm, water drakes? Sounds fish enough for me. Plus the requester is from a fishing village. Great find, Happy!"

"Aye!"

He grabbed the poster from the board in an unusually calm manner. Usually, he'll just grab the poster without any care in the world and it usually ends up the upper part being torn. This is because he now know this rash habit of his is the cause of his teammates not wanting him. Of course he's not gonna just ignore the reason for his teammates dislike for him.

They immediately ran towards the counter and presented the quest to Mirajane for approval.

"Yo, Mira. We'll get this job please." He said as he handed the quest poster to her.

As this transpired, Erza, who's currently enjoying her slice of strawberry cheesecake, saw Natsu taking a quest.

"Natsu." she called out.

"Oh, Erza. I didn't notice you there." he replied.

"I believe I ordered the team to rest for now. What's that?"

Natsu took a quick glance at Happy before replying to her. "Don't worry, I'm not dragging the team on this one. Me and Happy will just go by ourselves."

"We're gonna hunt some dragon fishes!" Happy added enthusiastically.

"What?"

Natsu quickly showed the poster to Erza and replied. "Nah, they're just some water drake hatchlings threatening a fishing village. We're going there because I promised Happy to bring him to a fish-related quest."

Erza took the poster and read that the quest isn't too difficult for them to handle. After a few seconds, she handed it back to them with relief painted on her face. "Here, I'll allow it. Just be careful or else I'll have both of you punished when you get back from the quest."

The two saluted in a comical way. "Yes ma'am!"

"Good." she replied then went back to her cake.

Natsu and Happy decided to grab a small snack before departing to the quest, well, as small as Natsu's meal can get which is still kinda huge.

Meanwhile, a certain water mage is creeping behind Gray with a smile on her face. This smile isn't the same from the creepy obsessive grin when she's stalking him. It's much more serious, the one full of pure affection to the ice mage. Mirajane saw this and being the guild's resident matchmaker, she can't help but smile for the girl.

'Come on Juvia, this is it. No more weird stuff. She's now gonna tell Gray-sama of all her feelings!' Juvia mentally encouraged herself.

"Um, Gray-sama..."

What she didn't expect was the sudden glare of her love interest. His eyes are so full of irritation. "What?!"

"Juvia just wanted to ask if-"

Gray was in a very bad mood from the last quest he had with Natsu and now that Juvia's pestering him again with her obsessive infatuation to him, he snapped. He doesn't care anymore.

"Again?! How many times do I have to reject you? Listen, I. DON'T. LIKE. YOU! Get that through your thick skull!"

Just when she going to give her all in telling Gray her feelings for her, she received the worst rejection she received in all of her life. What she felt was even worse than what the kids in the orphanage used to say about her. This time, what she saw from his face was sudden burst of hatred followed by a combination of anger and irritation.

Previous emotions immediately flooded her like a tsunami. Of all people, she didn't expect that the man who showed her the sun is also the one who will hide it from her again.

With the return of her emotions, so does rain. She felt that the clouds above are starting to form together. "Juvia needs to get out of here before it rains." she thought to herself.

"Juvi- I see. Sorry for pestering you, Gray-san."

She bowed to him, trying her best to hold her tears and the rain outside from falling. She have to until she's far enough from the guild. After the gesture, she walked straight out of the guild. She then ran as fast as she can while still holding her hands on her face.

Everyone in the guild saw what happened but just shrugged it off. For all they know, this is just the everyday even when Juvia gets rejected then ask him again the day later.

However for Natsu, he can't shake the feeling that he's the cause of this. He's always told many people including Igneel that he should not make a girl cry. Knowing that he's the cause of Gray's sour mood, he made him lash out to Juvia, causing the girl to cry.

Luckily, he happened to finish his small meal. "Phew, that hits the spot. Let's go, Happy!"

"Aye!"

They immediately ran outside the guild. Happy didn't noticed that Natsu was trying to sniff something, or someone, and just followed him without any complains. For Natsu, he's looking for Juvia to somehow apologize for his indirect involvement with her predicament.

After running for a while, they noticed that they're running towards the direction of their house. Happy misunderstood this as just them getting some supplies before going to their job. With that, he flew ahead of him to their house while Natsu went straight to the smell of the brokenhearted water mage.

As he was getting closer to the smell, he felt some raindrops falling on him and the rain is getting stronger. He knew he was on the right track.

It didn't long before he spotted Juvia. She was sitting near a river, curled up while being drenched in her own rain. Natsu wasn't any better as he looked like he just got out of the bathtub with how drenched he was.

"Juvia." he called to her.

"N-Natsu-san?" she asked, confused on why he would g chase her in this weather.

"I saw what happened earlier. I'm really sorry!"

He then bowed comically like a child who did something wrong to his parents. However, Juvia was still confused why would he apologized to her as he even wasn't there with the team when the rejection happened.

"Please raise your head Natsu-san, it's embarrassing! Besides, Juvia doesn't think Natsu-san did something bad to her."

"No, I think I may have to do with it. Gray was in a sour mood today because they thought I messed up our job yesterday. That may cause his outburst and harsh rejection towards you." he explained as best as he can.

Deep down, he still isn't convinced that majority of the property damage from the last job was from him and he doesn't care how much Gray hates him for it. But because of that hatred that made him lash out to Juvia is an enough reason for him to claim himself as the one at fault.

"No, please don't blame yourself. It happens every time Juvia ask Gray-sam- Gray-san out."

She herself isn't convinced on her own words. That's because this is the first time that he showed some level of hostility towards her advancements. However, it's not new to her that someone is showing their hateful glare at her.

"Doesn't matter, we need to find shelter now or else you'll get sick."

With that statement, Juvia let out a small chuckle. She didn't expect that he really thought about a water woman getting sick in her own rain. "Pfft! Natsu-san is hilarious, Juvia didn't expect that!"

Natsu in return was confused why she just laughed at his statement. Is it really wrong to show concern to someone you don't interact regularly with? He became flustered as Juvia continues to laugh.

"Eh? Why are you laughing? Did I say something wrong?"

"Natsu-san, Juvia can't get sick with the rain as she can be the water itself."

He paused for a few seconds before suddenly flailing in embarrassment as he realized his own idiocy. 'I can't believe they're right about me being an idiot all along!'

However, Juvia isn't the one to berate such small mistakes as she tried to calm down Natsu.

"Don't worry Natsu-san, Juvia appreciates your concern."

Natsu, however, saw the halting of the rain. Even if the dark clouds are still there, it's still a massive improvemet from the heavy rainfall earlier. He saw this as a mission success, though it could be better if he didn't make a fool of himself.

"Oh look, the rain stopped!" Natsu commented.

"Juvia is thankful for Natsu-san, he made the rain disappear."

"You can always rely on Fairy Tail. After all, we're family, right?"

"Right- Eep!"

Juvia was suddenly interrupted by a stray wind hitting her body while still wearing wet clothes. This causes her body to shiver due to the coldness she felt. Natsu on the other hand started laughing.

"Well, the coldness of the water is affecting you now, isn't it?"

Juvia now is the one flustered in embarrassment. "Don't laugh at Juvia!"

"Can't help it!"

He continues to laugh while heating his body up to evaporate the water in his clothes. Juvia watch him do his magic and she felt envious for it. Sure she can control some of the waters in her clothes, but the relief she could get from heating herself up is much more desirable right now.

Natsu noticed her stare. "Hmm, want me to dry your clothes up?"

Before she could reply, she's suddenly interrupted by a flying cat carrying a very huge backpack and some plain and strange-looking sticks of more than a meter in length. The cat then crashed on Natsu, making them fall to the ground painfully.

Natsu quickly got up and pulled Happy from the scattered travel supplies like a vegetable.

"Damn it Happy! What was that for?"

"You tell me! You said we're going on a quest when you suddenly disappeared. Next thing I know is that you were just flirting with Juvia!" Happy ranted while rapidly hitting Natsu's head with his fingerless paws.

That's when Happy suddenly realized something about the situation. He pulled his paws, then his face formed a simper.

"Wait, I forgot about the best in this."

"What now?"

" Yoooou lllliiiiiikkkeee heeer!"

What he didn't expect was the response of the guy in question. "Yeah, I like her!"

The two was baffled upon hearing his unlikely confession. In the case of Juvia, she's flustered beyond belief. She didn't expect someone who she didn't interact much until today holds that much feelings for her. Happy is just plain confused. However, knowing it's Natsu they're talking about here, there must be something else he misunderstood.

"You like as in LIKE her?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, you don't?"

Natsu didn't understand what's the big deal in what he just said. And why wouldn't he like his guildmates?

"You know Natsu, you're an idiot!"

"Says the cat who can't think about anything other than fishes!"

"Aren't you the same? You're the one who decided to get a job related to fishes!"

"But you're the one who suggested it!"

The antics of the two brought a smile on Juvia's face, bettering her mood. That in return, cleared the sky which was dark from the heavy rains just a few minutes ago. Though she didn't particularly hate the misunderstanding Natsu caused a while ago, it is also kinda unsettling that's why she's relieved that the like he meant was for everyone. In fact, she actually liked being the receiving end of the words he said. Even though it's not romantic, just hearing someone that they like her warms her heart greatly.

She let out a chuckle that interrupted the two from bickering. Natsu on the other hand was happy that she somehow fully recovered from the rejection earlier as the sky is now showing no signs of gloom from her.

"That's right, I almost forgot! Juvia, stand still."

"Eh, what for, Natsu-san?" Juvia asked.

"I was about to dry your clothes earlier, right? Don't worry, this won't burn you or your clothes." he said as he formed a weak ball of flame in his right hand while pointing at Juvia.

"Right. Juvia is ready." she replied as she braced herself for the incoming fire.

However, the flames that made contact with her just felt like a relaxing hot breeze. The flames just made the water in her clothes evaporate, making the clothes dry and comfy.

"Woa! Thank you, Natsu-san!"

"No problem." he immediately replied. "Well then, we're off to our job. See ya!"

Natsu started picking up the scattered supplies on the ground while Happy is putting them away inside the huge backpack. Thankful for cheering her up, Juvia helped them pick up the others.

Seeing the scattered fishing rods on the ground, Happy was reminded of what their quest is all about. Now that he's near the water mage, he thought that it's a good idea to bring her with them.

"Come to think of it, Juvia, would you like to join us on our job?" Happy innocently offered.

"Eh? You want Juvia to join you?"

"Yeah, I think it's a good idea!" Natsu added. "We're hunting some water drake hatchlings."

Natsu may have planned this trip to be just the two of them, but, having Juvia around doesn't really contradict to his purpose of distracting him from his previous teammates. Besides, Happy was the one who invited her so it also doesn't contradict to his second purpose which is to spend time with his Exceed partner.

Juvia, on the other hand, also wanted to take up the offer as it will be the perfect distraction for her broken heart. With these two goofballs around, her mind will be occupied enough to not leave enough space for thinking about her... previous love interest.

"Juvia will be happy to!"

A/N: Yeah, I used the easiest scenario on how to make Natsu and Juvia interact with each other. I mean, I just can't help it. Everytime I read a NaVia fic with this premise, I'd always find their interactions very cute.