Juvia enters through the side door from the alley, away from the busy street and into a more silent abode, though the heavy metal door would signal her entrance if it smacks back into place. She stops to slow the door's swing before it can slide into the door frame with a slam. Juvia silently regrets her decision to wear heels for the day, but continues on with her mission to scare Gajeel.

Juvia takes light steps across the concrete floor, the small clops hidden by the persistent hiss of the blow torch coming from the center of the garage. It was a slow day for a garage on the outskirts of New York City, as only Gajeel was working. She got to the second station when the blow torch stopped, and her stopping step resounding through the garage, alerting Gajeel to her presences.

A metal mask is tossed to the floor, ringing in the air as wheels scrabble against the cold floor and a pink-haired man pops up from behind one of the cars-definitely not Gajeel. His pink hair, face and white tank-top are smudged with grease, gloved hands clutching a wrench defensively and wide eyes looking at Juvia.

"Who're you?" he quickly demands, though he doesn't seem to label Juvia as a major threat, considering she's wearing a dress and high heels.

"Juvia was just hoping to surprise Gajeel," Juvia quickly explains.

"Oh," the man's defenses drop and the wrench falls out of his hand, clattering onto the ground. He jumps up in surprise, but recovers quickly and grins when Juvia tries to stifle her laugh, "I meant to do that. But, anyway, you know Gajeel?"

He walks over to Juvia and stops at other side of the cart she is standing next to. He removes his greasy gloves to get grease on his clean hands, then trying to wipe the grease off with a greasy rag from his pocket as Juvia talks, but he gives up eventually, tossing the rag onto the silver plate of tools.

"Yes, Juvia knows Gajeel pretty well," Juvia replies.

"I didn't know Gajeel had a girlfriend," he comments, tossing the rag onto the cart.

"Juvia's not Gajeel's girlfriend," Juvia dismisses. "Juvia is just Gajeel's friend."

"How long have you known my cousin?" he asks.

"You're Gajeel's cousin?" Juvia replies with wide eyes.

"Yeah," he replied, holding out his greasy hand. "Natsu Dragneel, oh wait, my hands dirty. Sorry."

"Juvia Lockser," Juvia shakes his hand before Natsu can pull it back, wiping her hand on the clean part of the rag afterwards. Natsu grins and continues on.

"I just moved here to New York a few months ago from a small town in upper New York, near Buffalo. My uncle gave me a job once I got here," Natsu explains. "What about you?"

"Juvia moved to New York from Russia when she was five. Gajeel was the first person Juvia met since he was her neighbor," Juvia replies.

"Wow that must've been hard, do you remember much of Russia?" Natsu asks.

"Not much," Juvia shrugs, leaving off 'that she wants to remember'. "Juvia's mother remarried when she came to the states and Juvia learned English and Spanish from her step-father and brothers."

"Cool! Is it hard to remember all three languages? I have hard enough time remembering Spanish since I'm speaking English all the time," Natsu continues.

"No, Juvia usually talks to her mother in Russian and her step-brothers or Gajeel in Spanish so it all works out in the end," Juvia answers.

"Yeah, but speakin' about Gajeel, I guess it was too high of a hope to think that Gajeel had finally gotten himself a girlfriend," Natsu jokes as he runs a dirty hand through his pink hair.

"True," Juvia laughs. "Juvia's tried to help him with that but it's gotten to the point where she's given up."

"I think my uncle feels the same but . . ." Natsu pauses before continuing. "My friend Lucy brought her friend Levy in the other day to get her car fixed. It was Gajeel's shift so he got to fix it."

"And?" Juvia pushes.

"Well they drove each other insane but Levy came in again with her car broken yesterday and asked if Gajeel was here to fix it," Natsu gossips.

"Maybe Gajeel will finally be able to get his head out of his ass and get together with someone on his own" Juvia replies, which makes Natsu laugh.

"Khahahaha-nice!" Natsu cackles, and Juvia figures weird laughs run in the family, considering Gajeel's laugh. Natsu continues on, changing the subject, "So, what do you do, like where do you work?"

"Oh," Juvia didn't expect the change. "Juvia works at Heart Kruez as a designer."

"Wow, that's big," Natsu comments, as Heart Kruez was one of the biggest fashion designers in the world. "I work here, obviously, but I have a friends who works there as a model. Do you know Erza?"

"Scarlet?" Juvia questions, and Natsu nods. "Juvia knows her. She's engaged to Juvia's step-brother."

"Wait. You're related to Jello?" Natsu realizes.

"Jellal, and yes," Juvia corrects.

"Sorry," Natsu apologizes. "But hey, small worlds. So have you every designed anything specifically for-"

The heavy side door slams shut, alerting Natsu and Juvia to Gajeel's presence, and cutting the conversation short.

"Natsu why the fuck aren't ya workin'!?" Gajeel shouts as he storms into the center of the garage where the two of them were standing. He creases his brow as he realizes that Juvia and Natsu had been talking, "Nhg, what're you doin' talkin' to Natsu?"

"Juvia came to see Gajeel and she and Natsu began to talk," Juvia explains.

"I'm sorry ya had to waste yer time on this dork," Gajeel replies.

"Hey-I'm not a dork! I'm cool!" Natsu protests. He leans his weight onto the silver plate on the cart, but is causes the plate to flip, scattering tools all over the floor. Natsu jumps as they clang to the ground, quickly claiming, "That was just a coincident! That doesn't mean dog shit! I am cool!"

Juvia giggles and Gajeel rolls his eyes, but Natsu beams from both reactions.

"You are," Gajeel argues, which earns him a punch in the shoulder from Juvia. "Ow!" Gajeel cringes from the pain, "Really woman?"

"Gajeel shouldn't be mean to his cousin since he and Natsu are family, plus Natsu is nice," Juvia scolds.

"Ha! Told!" Natsu giggles as he raises his hands into the air.

"Are ya gonna get back ta work or stand 'round makin' small talk fer the rest of yer shift?" Gajeel snaps at Natsu.

"Hold up," Natsu stalls and ignores Gajeel to continue his conversation with Juvia. "So if you're not dating Gajeel-"

"Ew, I'm not gonna date my best friends," Gajeel cuts in. Juvia punches him again, and otherwise he goes ignored.

"-are you dating anyone?" Natsu continues as he brushes his dirty hand through his hair and lowers it to push his fingers together. Juvia begins to blush as she realizes what Natsu is trying to get to, but Gajeel interrupts again.

"As much as I hate this, you two are actin' like a couple 'a nervous school kids," Gajeel's bluntness shocks them both out of their nervous stupor. "But as I said, I hate the idea of my cousin and my best friend gettin' together so I'll say it nicely. Juvi, please don't date my cousin."

"Why not?" Juvia crosses her arms as she replies. "Just because Gajeel can't find anyone doesn't mean Juvia can't date anyone."

"Wow," Gajeel furrows his brows as Natsu cackles.

"So," Natsu gets control of himself. "Whadda say? We can meet here before goin' out to dinner-if you live close that is. We can meet elsewhere."

"Don't do it," Gajeel manages to force himself into the conversation. "Don't date my cousin. Please."

"Sure," Juvia agrees.

"Yes!" Natsu pups his fist into the air.

"God dammit," Gajeel swears.

"Juvia doesn't mind meeting up here," Juvia continues. "Is tomorrow at six good?"

"Totally," Natsu replies, his smile is stretching from ear to ear.

"So now that this is over," Gajeel stops the conversation and turns to Natsu. "Can ya please get back ta work!? My dad ain't gonna be happy when I tell him you were slackin' on the job, pickin' up girls."

"Aye sir!" Natsu raises his hand in a mock salute and runs back to the car, nimbly jumping over the stray car parts in his path. He dives behind the car, only to pop back up a second later, "Bye Juvia! See ya tomorrow!"

"Bye Natsu," Juvia replies. As the blow torch picks up again, Juvia follows Gajeel to the opposite end of the garage to the office, as Gajeel was probably hoping to curb any further conversation that could hinder Natsu's work progress.

The door shuts behind Juvia in the dimly lit office. Gajeel walked over to the coffee machines and Juvia took up her usual job of opening the blinds, as neither Metalicana nor Gajeel cared enough to open the blinds themselves.

"Want some?" Gajeel offered as he poured a cup of coffee for himself.

"Sure," Juvia agrees, taking a seat in one of the office chairs.

"So before I ask ya why ya even came here today," Gajeel begins as he pours coffee for Juvia into a Styrofoam cup. He turns around and hands Juvia the cup, "Why him?"

Juvia accepts the lukewarm coffee and answers, "Natsu's sweet and nice, unlike someone Juvia knows." Gajeel just grunts and leans on the counter, and Juvia takes a sip of the coffee, "Gajeel, this coffee is terrible."

"Yer new beau made it," Gajeel replies. "The only thing he can make that is slightly edible is so spicy it'll melt yer tongue off."

"So?" Juvia argues. "Don't try to discourage Juvia just because Natsu is Gajeel's cousin. And besides, anything Gajeel makes tastes metallic, even his coffee."

"You drink my coffee," Gajeel counters.

"Juvia drank it for eight years straight through high school and college-Juvia just isn't used to normal tasting coffee anymore," Juvia replies.

"Alright," Gajeel huffs. "So why'da come here anyway?"

"Juvia just wanted to stop by and to try and scare Gajeel, considering she has the rest of the day off," Juvia explains.

"God dammit," Gajeel swears. "Well, at least that would've been better than you goin' on a date with my cousin."

"Gajeel needs to get over it already," Juvia insists. "Maybe Gajeel would stop complaining if he met someone for himself."

"Dear god please no I'll stop whinin' if ya don't continue please," Gajeel begs.

"You know," Juvia smiles victoriously and continues to tease. "Natsu was telling Juvia about someone named Levy before Gajeel returned."

"God dammit Natsu."

Next: Smoke and Graphite