Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Fairy Tail. This is purely a fan-made story.

Restoring Memories

Chapter One: When Are You Coming Home Gray?

Mira's lovely voice wafted through the guild as she sang, sending the guild into one of its rare moments of stillness. The only one who didn't seem to be appreciative of the entertainment was Natsu. The dragon slayer sat in a corner, his head resting on the table, staring at the steam that rose up from his beverage, barely listening to the song.

Since the weather was rather cold the master thought it would be a nice treat to have hot chocolate passed around to everyone. Natsu guessed it tasted delicious, but he didn't feel the urge to sit up and take a drink. He didn't even react when the mug had been placed in front of him, and just continued to start blankly ahead.

The guild erupted into applause as Mira finished her song, then they all immediately began demanding she sing another. The lovely woman considered this for a moment, then agree with a smile and broke into her second song.

It was then that the door was flung open and Erza entered. A few glanced over and greeted her with a hello, but most of the members still had their gazes fixed on Mira. Erza nodded her head at the greetings then froze when she spotted Natsu. Her eyes narrowed and she quickly strode over to his table.

She slammed her fist down on the table, causing some of his hot beverage to spill onto the wood. Natsu flinched slightly but other than that the fire mage didn't move.

"Isn't this the exact same spot you were in when I left Erza asked, in a low threatening voice.

Natsu only grunted in response.

"Have you moved at all today?"

He turned his head slightly to glare at her with one eye. Erza was so surprised she had to take a step back. Natsu had never glared at her before, not unless they were engaged in a sparring match. She clenched her fist in anger.

"Sulking around isn't going to bring Gray back any sooner."

Natsu turned his head away at this and growled deep in his throat.

Not much of a response, but at least it was something. She tried again "Weren't you going to train while he was gone? I bet Gray's going to be a lot stronger when he gets back from such hard mission. You're going to have to get to work if you want to catch up."

At that, Natsu was done listening to the lecture, he abruptly stood up and turned towards the door. Erza yelled various threats at him to come back, but he barely heard them. Only when he heard the master's voice speak up above the crowd did he pause and glance over his shoulder at the tiny man that had just taken the stage.

"Thank you for that lovely song, Mira," Makarov said with a smile. "Now before you all go home tonight I have news to give you."

A murmur ran through the crowd as the master cleared his throat. They fell silent again as he continued to speak.

"I just got a letter from Gildarts. He says that he's found Gray and that Gray has complicated his mission."

The cheering that ran through the hall was ecstatic. The master had to yell in order to get them to calm down enough so that he could finish.

"Unfortunately, he sustained some pretty bad injuries along the way. He's expected to make a full recovery, but it'll be a while before he's able to travel."

"So he's coming back?"

All eyes turned to the back of the hall were Natsu was standing, eyes wide and lips curled up into a small grin.

"Um," The master seemed completely off guard by the question. He struggled to find an answer. "Gildarts didn't say exactly if Gray would be coming home, but I would assume..." his voice trailed off, still unsure of the right thing to say.

"What?" Natsu growled, "Is he coming home or not?"

"I don't know." Makeover finally admitted.

Complete silence fell. Everyone just stared at the two. Natsu glared at the small man as his fists shook and the other looking downcast and staring at the fire mage in broken defeat. Finally, Natsu let out an exasperated growl before storming out of the guild.

There were about thirty seconds of silence before everyone started talking at once, bombarding the master with questions. He dismissed them all, giving no further details about Gray or his mission. This satisfied no one and the pestering continued. Erza gave the master a sympathetic look before turning to follow Natsu.

She caught up with him when he was about halfway to his home.

"Natsu!" she called when his pink head came into view, "Natsu wait!"

Natsu didn't stop, didn't even slow down. Erza quickened her pace to catch up with him. Once she was walking at his side, she turned her head to glare at him.

"You can't just lock yourself away from the world, Natsu."

"I'm not," he finally spoke to her. His voice flat and unemotional, "I've been going on plenty of missions. Same as before."

"But you hardly even talk to anyone. For the past few weeks, you've barely spent any time at the guild."

"Will you quit bugging me!" he snapped, narrowing his pointy eyes at her.

Her features softened and looked at him with such affectionate worry that his own face fell and he stared down at his feet in shame.

"Sorry." he murmured, "I guess I'm just worried."

"About Gray?"

The fire mage would rarely admit to being worried about his rival, or even say they were friends. Something to do with pride, she guessed, although it still didn't make much sense to her.

"Yeah."

She smiled at him actually admitting it, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"But the time for worry is over. Gray completed his mission and will be coming home soon."

"You don't know that."

Erza raised an eyebrow at this. "Weren't you the one, when he first left, that kept reassuring us that he would come back? Has your faith in him really run out after so little time?"

"No!" Natsu yelled, shaking his head. "It's not that. I know he'll come back. It's just-" he choked on his next words and fell back into silence, coming to a halt in the middle of the road.

Erza let out a heavy sigh and reached both arms around to pull the other into an embrace.

"He'll still be the same, Natsu," she whispered. "Gray will still be Gray. Not matter what he goes through."

Natsu pulled away and glared at her.

"I know that." he growled, then stalked off.

She let him go. Watching sadly as he retreated into the woods where his house lay. She hoped for all their sakes that she was right.

It had been three months since Gray had left on a personal mission. He had told them very little about what he would be doing and seemed so uncertain that he would actually be able to come home that he actually quit the guild before he left. Just quit and left. No one fully understood why and he refused to let anyone come with him.

The only person he relayed the full details to was Makarov. The master seemed to understand Gray's desires and let him go. Everyone didn't know how to take this, but they still sent him off with their best wishes.

After a while of waiting everyone's worries for the ice mage increased. That was when Makarov sent Gildarts to go find Gray and make sure he was all right. He wouldn't let anyone else go and didn't tell them why. All they could do was stay at home and hope for the best.

A fourth month passed and there was no sign of Gray or any word from Gildarts, and everyone began to wonder if the ice mage really would come home. Lucy, however, remained optimistic.

"We should plan a really awesome party for when Gray gets back," she chirped as she slid over to sit next to Natsu. "Just the seven of us to celebrate the reunion of the team."

"That sounds like a lovely idea," Wendy said with a smile, "How much longer do you think it will be before Gray get's back."

Lucy shrugged.

Wendy turned to Carla, "Can you predict when Gray will return with your clairvoyance?"

The white cat shook her head. "Not right now I'm afraid."

"That's too bad. It'd be nice to know so we can get everything ready. What do you think we should do. Should we go out to eat? Or maybe would should have a picnic."

As the two girls exchanged ideas Natsu's eyes suddenly widened and he shot to his feet, sniffing the air.

"What is it?" Lucy asked, but was ignored as Natsu suddenly made a bolt for the door.

In a flash, the fire mage was out in the street and running at full speed. He hadn't run more than fifty yards, however before he came to a halt in the middle of the road. He stared straight ahead at something in the distance.

It was a young man with black hair, walking leisurely towards him.

He took another deep intake of the person's scent, just to confirm before rushing him. The other barely had time to look up and see him coming before he was tackled to the ground. He pinned him in place and grinned down at him, their face's only half a foot apart.

"What took you so bloody long, Droopy Eyes?"

He reached his hands up and grabbed hold of Gray's cheeks, pinching them playfully. Gray flinched away and shut his eyes tightly. Natsu froze. Something wasn't right. Normally Gray would have shoved him off by now. Instead, he was just lying there, stiff as a board, as if in anticipation of being punched. He examined him more closely; He was taking in deeper breaths and the distinct smell of fear was coming off him. Natsu's eyes grew large and he slowly got off him and stood to his feet.

Gray opened his eyes but didn't move to stand up. He turned his head away and took in several deep gulps of air.

"Hey, Natsu." he finally spoke, his voice shaking slightly.

Even his greeting was off. It wasn't said with his usual mockery or friendliness. It was like he was addressing an acquaintance, not someone he had known since he was a kid. Natsu growled and reached down to grab hold of Gray's arm.

He pulled him to his feet then used his other hand to grab his chin and turned his head to look into his eyes. He saw a flash of panic in them before a fist collided with his nose. He reeled back and instinctively brought his own fist up to counter attack.

"You perverted stripper!" he yelled as his fists burst into flames, "Is that any way to greet someone?"

"What? Did you want a hug or something?" Gray asked. His usually mocking tone was back and Natsu felt a bit of relief at that.

"Natsu! Natsu, why'd you run off like that?" the fire mage's flames went out when he heard Lucy calling him.

He looked down the street and saw her running in their direction, her blond hair bouncing with every step.

"Over here!" he called.

She turned her head and their direction. Her eyes nearly doubled in size when she saw Gray and her mouth fell open in a smile.

"You're back!" she squealed joyfully and rushed forward. She threw her arms around Gray and hugged him tightly. Gray nearly fell at the sudden impact but quickly regained balance. Lucy hummed in happiness and pulled him tighter.

At first Gray didn't react, only stared down at her in stunned silence. When she showed no sign of pulling away, he hugged her back awkwardly. Natsu took note of this but didn't say anything. Lucy didn't seem to mind. She pulled away, then, grabbed Gray's wrist and began dragging him towards the guild.

"Come on!" she urged, "We need to tell everyone you're back. Juvia's probably going to faint when she sees you, or melt into a puddle, or flood the entire guild with her tears. She's a bit unpredictable like that."

Gray reluctantly let the blonde lead him away, leaving Natsu to stare at his retreating back. He didn't move but kept staring, trying to process what had just happened. Gray was back and yet he didn't seem very happy to be here. He felt a tinge of fear clench his heart, but he shook it off.

"Wait for me!" he called and ran to catch up with them.

The minute Gray entered the guild he was surrounded by its members. Everyone came running up to him, welcoming him back with smiles, cheers, and endless questions. Wendy gave him a warm hug and he returned it a bit less awkwardly than he had with Lucy.

Lucy quickly realized that she was mistaken about Juvia being there. The blue haired water mage had gone off on a three day trip with Gajeel the day before. Apparently she was off looking for a welcome home gift for Gray and had dragged the iron dragon slayer along for 'a man's impute'.

Natsu watched Gray closely as people came up to him. It was clear to him that he was on edge, but no one else seemed to notice. He tried shrugging off the worrying thoughts that kept coming to him. Maybe Gray was just tired and would be back to his old self in a few days. Or maybe he was just a little unsure how everyone would react considering he did quit the guild before he left.

They would have stopped everything then and there and had him a welcome home celebration if it weren't for the fact that most of the guild members were out on jobs at the moment, it being the middle of the afternoon. Erza also was out on a job and they couldn't have a proper welcome home party without her. So they put it off until evening.

"Didn't Gildarts come back with you?" Wendy asked Gray.

"He traveled with me for about half the way, then he said he had a quest to complete somewhere else, saying that picking me up was just a side mission for him. So we parted ways." Gray explained.

"So surprise there, that guy can't seem to keep his feet in place, one minute before running off again." someone commented.

Gray shrugged, then let out a tired sigh, "I'm glad to be home and all, but I'd really like to get some rest before the big party tonight. I'll see you all later."

With a wave of his hand, he headed for the door. He was just a step away from leaving when Makarov stopped him. He called him into his office, asking for a talk. Gray agreed with a tired smile and followed the old man out of the room.

Once he was gone Natsu went up to Lucy and whispered into her ear.

"Something's off about Gray."

"So you noticed it too?" she whispered back.

"Yeah, what do you think happened to him?" Natsu asked, grateful that at least one other person had noticed.

"He might just be tired like he said." she shrugged, "we shouldn't go jumping to conclusions."

"But that's not how he acts when he's tired." Natsu insisted, "Something's up."

"I don't know." Lucy sighed, "But we should wait until he's had time to relax before we question him about it."

"Fine." Natsu reluctantly agreed. He wanted to barge into the master's office right then and begin the interrogation, but the little amount common sense he possessed told him that Lucy was right; he'd just have to wait.

Gray sat in a chair opposite the guild master, his shoulder slumped and his head hung.

"How are you feeling my boy?" Makarov asked. Concern was etched into his features.

Gray let out a heavy sigh. "Did you get Gildart's letter?" he asked.

"I did."

"Then you know what happened to me?"

Makarov's eyes widened, "But he said that there was a way they could be fixed."

Gray shook his head. "They can't," he choked.

Makarov stood there in silence for a long moment, taking in what he had been told. Finally, he took a step forward and reached a hand out to the other.

"Please don't get too close," Gray whispered, looking up slightly.

The old man froze, then took a step back, outstretched hand trembling slightly.

"Sorry." Gray apologized, "It's just... I need time."

Makarov slowly nodded.

"I'm here for you whenever you need me." he reassured him.

"Okay." was all Gray said before standing to his feet. "Please don't tell anyone else yet. Like I said, I need time."

"If that's what you want."

Gray thanked him, then turned and left. The old man collapsed into the chair he had just been sitting in. He put his head in his hands, shoulders shaking slightly.

"What am I going to do?"

A/N: This story is a sequel to my other story 'Corrupted Memories'. You can go ahead and read it if you want to find out what happened to Gray, or you can wait and leave it a mystery and find out when Natsu and the rest discover it. And you don't need to feel the need to read the first story. I'm going to try to write this so you won't have to in order to enjoy it.

And yes, I am keeping the tradition of posting a chapter every Friday.