Note: This is the sequel to "Demon of Redemption". If you haven't read that, you're going to be very confused ;)

So, I originally intended this to be a halfhearted series of loosely connected one-shots. What actually happened is that I came up with an overarching main plot thread and a lot of minor plots, and now it's turning into a huge project and legitimate sequel. I'm dividing it into four main segments, each of which has a slightly different focus. For example, the first segment (which I expect to be the longest) covers a lot of the aftermath and up to the reconciliation with the guild, while Lyon becomes a major player in the second. Honestly, this just covers a lot, and it's going to be long.

You know how I said it was supposed to be a collection of one-shots? Well, it still kind of is. It's written in the format of one- and two-shots that link together. Some read a bit more like chapters in how they connect, while some are more like standalones but are still positioned along the timeline. Why did I do it that way, aside from being too lazy to write a full chaptered sequel? I get different POVs :D I'd guesstimate that half of these are in Gray's POV, and the others are divided up between other characters. It was interesting to see how different characters perceived things. In the end, this is kind of a hybrid between a multichapter and one-shot collection. I was a little wary of it at first, but it's actually working out surprisingly well.

And now we start with Natsu. He just wouldn't be Natsu if he didn't ruin the emotional moment XD

Start Segment 1

After-Acceptance (1)

Given everything that had happened over the past several days, Natsu was not surprised that Gray had a strong reaction upon seeing what had happened to his Book. Still, he hadn't expected his friend to start bawling.

Okay, maybe 'bawling' was a strong word. It was really more like a couple tears and damp eyes, but that was still a lot more than Gray would usually show. And honestly, it made Natsu nervous after everything Gray had said and done lately. He'd already been a mess.

"Are you alright?" Natsu took a hesitant step forward to peer at his friend more closely. "Why are you crying?"

Then he yelped as Erza jammed her elbow into his side.

"Natsu!" she hissed in his ear. "It's emotional."

Natsu scowled at her as he rubbed his tender side, wincing at all the aches and pains it kicked up. "Well, I know that. But–"

"I am not," Gray grumbled, a glower gracing his features as he attempted to scrub at his face as surreptitiously as possible.

"Uh, yeah, you are."

"Am not," Gray insisted. Well, at least their arguments hadn't become any less childish despite everything else that had changed. "Tears are silly human things. I have no need of them."

"You cried on Galuna."

"Did not."

"You did, actually," Lucy interrupted. "While Natsu was asleep."

"Did not."

"Wait, while I was asleep? I meant after Deliora fell…ah…never mind…" Natsu winced and trailed off. He'd always had a mouth big enough to stick both feet in at once, and he seemed to do it on a regular basis.

Gray leveled a flat look at him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Natsu opened his mouth to retort, but then shut it again. No point digging himself into a deeper hole.

"Or after the Games," Erza said. "In the carriage."

A bitter grimace twisted Gray's lips before he half turned away, muttering something about 'damn annoying humans'. Apparently deciding to cut his losses, he returned his attention to the Book in his hands. His fingers traced over the covers and absently ran across the edges of the thick sheaf of papers bound between them.

Natsu was familiar with all that now, having held on to the Book the whole time he was panicking trying to save Gray and through the ensuing conversation. He could practically still feel the worn leather under his fingertips, pitted and scarred with age and abuse. It was unclear how much of the damage was natural, but some of it looked purposeful. Just thinking about it made Natsu wince in sympathy. He still remembered the intense pain when Zeref had damaged his own Book.

Then again, he wasn't sure if some of the damage to Gray's had been caused by Gray himself, after his binding had been severed. It still disturbed Natsu to think that his friend had been actively looking for ways to kill himself.

Gray's hands ghosted over the surface of the Book purposefully, crystalline frost shimmering in their wake as he sealed everything in a layer of ice.

"What are you doing?" Happy asked.

"Taking precautions," Gray grunted as he reached out to hook his fingers into the shadow flared out behind him, teasing it apart. The Book disappeared into the inky maw, and the shadow settled back down again, for all intents and purposes looking like any normal human shadow once more.

Natsu wasn't sure he'd ever get used to seeing Gray do stuff like that. Gray was supposed to use ice, not shadows. Although seeing him manipulate fire had been even more disconcerting.

"How did you do that?" Natsu asked curiously, eyeing the deceptively ordinary shadow at Gray's feet. "You pulled it out of there before, too."

"Mhm." Gray shrugged, his expression affecting boredom even though his dark eyes were still raging with unidentifiable emotion. "It's basically like Erza's requip storage space, except simpler and using curses rather than magic. Useful for storing objects I need to keep but don't want nosy humans seeing."

"Interesting," Erza murmured. "What else do you keep in there?"

"Just my Book, really. I don't have many important objects to keep around."

Natsu opened his mouth, but was quickly distracted by the whispering behind him. A handful of people—both from Fairy Tail and other guilds—had stumbled upon the gathering sometime between Gray's intended final stand and his recovery, but Natsu hadn't paid them much mind. He had been more preoccupied with desperately searching for a way to keep Gray alive and then get him to wake up again.

But now that things were settling down, he couldn't help but pick up on some of the fearful and discontented grumblings.

"Fairy Tail has really gone off the deep end this time. They're going to get us all killed."

"He's pretty scary…"

"What are we supposed to do with a demon?"

"I don't know… Is this really a good idea? It seems kind of dangerous…"

"I mean, he's not rampaging around right now, but…"

"Should we find some anti-magic cuffs or something to be safe? Or see if we can find someone from the Council to sort this out?"

Gray's lips tightened and he dropped his gaze to the ground. It was unclear whether he was hurt by the words themselves or was unhappy that his worries about the other guilds turning on Fairy Tail were already proving correct, but either way, Natsu wasn't happy about it. After everything they had been through, everything Gray had been through, the last thing they needed was people making things worse. And although Natsu understood why people weren't entirely sure what to make of Gray, no one got to talk about his best friend like that.

Natsu rounded on the malcontents, eyes blazing and mouth opening as he prepared to chew them out. Erza, discerning his intentions, put a restraining hand on his arm and gave the objects of his ire a hard look of her own.

"Just because Zeref is dead doesn't mean that everything is over," she said coolly, her eyes gleaming with tightly-controlled anger as they swept over the small gathering of mages. "I believe that the Spriggans have been taken out by now, but there are still foot soldiers all over the place. Why don't you go make yourselves useful and clean up the remnants of the mess? Once you've done that, I'm sure there are plenty of injured mages who could use some help, and then maybe you can get a little rest before we have to get to work rebuilding the city."

It was impossible not to be intimidated by Erza when she started handing out cold, no-nonsense orders like that. Several people nodded or offered muttered agreement, before hurriedly backing up and disappearing into the maze of ruined streets. A few others, whose instincts of self-preservation were not quite as developed, hesitated a moment too long.

"Go!" Erza growled, eyes flashing angrily.

The stragglers practically tripped over each other in their haste to get away. As they hurried off, Erza shook her head and turned back to the others, dropping her hand from Natsu's arm.

Gray had watched the proceedings with a face so expressionless that it would be easy to assume he hadn't even heard the murmurings. Except that Natsu knew he had. His face was a little too expressionless, everything tightly controlled. It wasn't entirely alien since Gray had mastered that flat, unreadable look a long time ago and employed it to great effect ever since when the situation called for it, but something about it reminded Natsu of how much his friend had suddenly changed.

Well, maybe it was even more disconcerting to not know whether or not it was a real change. Had Gray really been like this all along but hidden it? Or was it something he was affecting because he was still trying to distance himself from everyone else? Or, perhaps, he had spent the past days trying to merge the two sides of his personality together as best he could?

Natsu couldn't believe that everything from before had been a lie, but he also had the feeling that the changes in Gray were just as real. Some of those changes might have come about from all the drama and heartache of the past few days, but, having been Awakened and gaining a slightly different perspective because of it, Natsu suspected that Gray had a lot of conflicting impulses and worldviews to try fitting together into a single coherent personality. It might be a long time before he figured it out, and Natsu wasn't sure if he would ever really be the same. That was kind of sad because Natsu missed the old Gray, but he would still stand by his friend no matter how things ended up.

"Have you come up with your cover story yet?" Gray asked, turning to Mavis as the last of the stragglers disappeared from view.

"Cover story?" she asked with a frown. "What cover story?"

Gray rolled his eyes and backed up a step or two so that he could lean against the crumbling remnants of what had once been the wall of a building. He was still keeping up that cool, unreadable façade, but the way he carried himself screamed of exhaustion and pain.

"Your story for how I got out of prison and why I helped you instead of killing everyone. I told you to come up with one, remember?"

Mavis clicked her tongue impatiently and shook her head. "Yes, yes, I remember. But honestly, what's so bad about the truth? You killed Zeref and didn't hurt anyone else. It will be hard for everyone to overlook that."

"If you say so. But to be safe, decide what kind of deal you made with me to keep me from turning on you. It'll help appease the Council a little."

"Wait," Lyon interrupted, his eyes narrowing, "I thought there was a deal? You told me that you made a deal with Fairy Tail."

Natsu gave him a wary look. Lyon might have started coming around eventually to offer Gray something that he probably needed, but it was hard to forget that he carried a lot of hate and could become a threat. Natsu could sort of sympathize, but his priority was still Gray.

"Oh?" Gray tilted his head to study Lyon. "I guess I did, didn't I? I needed you to stop attacking me and get back to the real fight." He raised an eyebrow at Mavis and added, "See? Best create a bargain."

Mavis shook her head. "I think the truth will work well enough. Anyway, isn't it better for them to know that you did all this of your own free will and not because you were forced into it?"

"You'd think, but no," Gray disagreed. "It's a measure of extra security for everyone else, in the same way that letting them think their anti-magic cuffs and jails would contain me was a way for them to feel like they were in control. It's a false sense of security and illusory control, but it means that they don't fear me the same way they would if they knew the truth. They want reassurance that I can't turn around and kill them, which is where this bargain would come in. Otherwise, they're going to want to find a way to lock me up or put bindings on me to get that guarantee."

Natsu frowned, not having considered that before. It seemed more cut and dry to him—someone who had done so much to help them without getting anything out of it or being forced into it must be on their side and therefore a friend. Why need reassurance or guarantees when Gray had already proven himself to be an ally? If he'd gone all this time without killing anyone despite everything they'd done to him, had even nearly killed himself to help them, then obviously he wasn't going to turn around and randomly attack someone now.

"Wait," Lyon said, "what do you mean that anti-magic cuffs don't hold you?"

Everyone ignored him.

"But that would still be lying," Natsu reasoned. "Why not just tell them the truth and make them deal with it? You could've killed everyone any time you wanted to, but didn't. Why would you start now?"

"Because I'm a demon, and demons can't be trusted," Gray said dryly. "You might be silly enough to think otherwise, but most people are not. It doesn't matter what 'proof' you offer them. They want an absolute guarantee that I can't turn on them."

"People are dumb," Natsu muttered.

"I see your point," Mavis said with a thoughtful frown. "At the same time, it doesn't feel right to deliberately turn you into a villain or untrustworthy character when you've proven to be anything but. We don't need you to be our scapegoat. I still think it would be enough to capitalize on how you killed Zeref."

Gray huffed impatiently and shook his head. "I made sure my magical signature covered over everything in the jail, so it's really obvious that I broke out by myself and not so obvious that anyone else was ever down there. At the very least, don't tell anyone that my idiot team came after me. And if…" He trailed off and frowned at a point on the ground. "Actually… You know what, maybe you're right. If we tell mostly the truth… Hm, let me tell the story, though."

His eyes had taken on that coldly calculating cast again, and Natsu could practically see the plan forming in his mind. It was half reassuring and half worrisome. Gray had proven himself capable of formulating intricate and successful plans, but those plans hadn't always been to his benefit. Natsu hoped that this plan wasn't going to be one of those self-destructive ones.

"Oh?" Mavis asked. "And what–?"

"Let me think it through," Gray interrupted, drumming pale fingers against his leg. "I think I might know how to spin it to tell enough of the truth but not get myself thrown in prison for eternity. Just trust me to handle it, yeah?"

There were a few rather reluctant nods. Natsu just shrugged it off. He wasn't one for planning anyway, and Gray seemed to have a better idea of how to handle the situation than he did.

"Will it be a problem that there were bystanders for part of this?" Lucy asked. She threw a glance back over her shoulder, at where their unwanted company had disappeared shortly before.

"…Maybe."

Erza smiled grimly. "I can hunt them down and make sure they don't talk."

Natsu shivered. Some people were about to be very traumatized.

"Or if we found Mest-san, we could ask him to wipe any sensitive information from their memories," Wendy suggested in a small voice.

"That…is actually brilliant," Gray said. "As long as we remember who they are and can find them again."

"Don't worry," Erza said with that huntress's smile. "I can find them."

Poor suckers.

"Actually," Natsu said, "why don't we just wipe everyone's memories of the whole demon thing? Problem solved."

He thought it was a very convenient solution, but Gray gave him a withering look. "Really? Do you have any idea of the scope of what you're proposing? Aside from having to rewrite huge chunks of memory, it would be a pain to figure out what to fill all the gaps with and we'd have to come up with new explanations for everything. And I'm pretty sure half the continent knows about the 'whole demon thing' by now. No, it would be a huge mess. The less we have to tamper with people's minds, the better.

"It would work best if we just made anyone who was here after Zeref's death conveniently forget they were here at all. It'll be alright if they saw the fight, but it would be best if they didn't know any potentially incriminating information that came to light after."

"Whatever," Natsu muttered.

"We'll take care of it," Wendy said.

Gray smiled tiredly. "Thanks."

"And now," Porlyusica interrupted, her voice dripping with venom, "go get some rest before you overexert yourself and I have to waste more time and resources tending to you while I should be helping other wounded mages."

Natsu thought Gray would protest since he hated being ordered around or directed to rest, but the ice mage just nodded his agreement. Come to think of it, it was actually pretty amazing that he was still standing at all. Even ignoring all the injuries from his earlier fights and from Natsu himself, Gray had taken serious damage while defeating Zeref. And given the horrible state his body had been in afterwards… Natsu shook his head to banish the memories of blood and death and mangled limbs.

His gaze was drawn to a point behind Gray almost of its own accord. He wasn't sure that Gray had actually noticed the shallow crater several yards away, marred with scorch marks and death and blackened ice. Zeref's body was still there. Natsu couldn't see it from here, but he well remembered the barely recognizable mess of charred skin and broken limbs and dribbling blood. Gray hadn't looked much better, but Wendy and Porlyusica were truly miracle workers.

Natsu tore his gaze away, not really wanting to think about Zeref. It was still hard to figure out what to make of the black mage. He had been evil and had done truly horrific things, but he had also apparently been family. Natsu wondered what it might have been like if things had been different.

"What about the guild?" Makarov was saying, and Natsu realized that he had been zoning out.

"I saw it not too long ago and it was still standing," Cana offered. "Well, there's definitely a lot of damage, but most of the basic structure is intact."

"Then maybe that will work, at least for now. It'll be good to keep the injured close to home instead of sending them out into the city while Alvarez's soldiers are still running around."

"And make sure the dragon slayer goes along and stays down too," Porlyusica grumbled.

Natsu's head snapped up. "But–"

"After all the work I put into fixing you up, you will rest instead of undoing it all," she snapped.

Natsu shrank back a little. She was still scary as hell. And yet…

"But there are still bad guys running around and–"

"And you will leave less injured mages to finish taking care of that."

Okay, so Natsu had taken a lot of damage from Acnologia and Gray, and Porlyusica had spent some time bandaging up all his wounds after she'd managed to get Gray to a mostly stable condition. And sure, Natsu was exhausted and his body ached all over. But sitting out of a fight? How was he supposed to sleep off injuries while everyone else was having fun beating up bad guys?

"We'll make sure they both get some rest," Erza said. "Lucy, Happy, and I will take them back to the guild."

"But–"

Erza grabbed Natsu's arm and pulled him around so that they weren't facing the others. Natsu squawked in surprise, but she just gave him a solemn look and leaned in, lowering her voice.

"You're injured," she said quietly. "More than that, Gray is even more injured. Lucy and I will need to help with the cleanup process, but Gray can't right now. He can barely stand, much less fight, and with how much magic he used, I doubt he could even defend himself properly. If someone stumbles on him, he has no way to keep himself safe. Even aside from the last of the Alvarez soldiers, anyone from the guilds who runs across him might be a threat. If you won't sit this out because of your own injuries, then do it for his. He shouldn't be alone right now."

Natsu had the feeling that Erza was playing this up to convince him to get some rest, but it was hard to deny that she was also right. Gray was in no shape to be fighting, and with how much hostility everyone had shown toward him…

"Fine," Natsu grumbled.

A faint smile ghosted over Erza's face. "Thank you."

She turned back, and Natsu followed her lead. Gray was sauntering toward them—well, as much as he could saunter, given that he also had a very pronounced limp—with an unreadable expression on his face. Erza stepped forward to carefully wrap an arm around him and help him along. Although Gray's eyes flashed with irritation, he just grimaced and reluctantly leaned against her for support. Well, that was a pretty clear sign that he was reaching his limits.

"Hey, has anyone seen the Book of E.N.D.?" Mavis asked suddenly.

Natsu frowned and spun in a slow circle as he searched the ground, swaying slightly as his injuries flared up again. He thought he might have noticed the Book while he had been grabbing Gray's, but at that point he had been so panicked and in so much of a rush that he hadn't been paying much attention to anything else. Whatever the case, it wasn't there now.

There was a chorus of negative responses as everyone looked around but failed to find the missing artifact. That was weird. Where could it have disappeared to?

"Have you seen it?" he asked Gray.

"I've been out of commission," the ice mage said with a shrug, before pointing over at a spot on the ground. "I tossed it somewhere over there."

"Well, it's not there now."

"I'd noticed."

"Will that be a problem?" Mavis asked. "I'd think it would be better not to have something like that go missing."

Gray shrugged again. "Natsu isn't bound to it anymore. For all intents and purposes, it's just an old book. I wouldn't worry about it too much."

Mavis didn't seem entirely satisfied, but had no choice but to let it go when several minutes of searching failed to turn up the missing Book. Erza eventually announced that she and the team were leaving, presumably because Gray looked like he might collapse at any second. Although Natsu was a little disconcerted by his Book going missing, he didn't protest. Gray could desperately use some rest. And so could Natsu himself, even though he'd rather die than admit it.

He was even exhausted enough that he only put up token protests when Lucy gave him much the same treatment Erza was giving Gray. He'd tolerate Lucy and Happy's fussing for now, if only because he was too tired to put up much of a fight.

The team moved slowly, since every step was a struggle for the boys. The devastation they passed through was not an encouraging sight. Some parts of the city were relatively less damaged than others, but some were just smoking ruins and rubble. Thankfully the legions of Alvarez soldiers seemed to have been reduced somewhat, and the team did its best to avoid the remnants of the army.

Natsu also didn't fail to notice how Erza had positioned Gray in such a way that he was to the inside of the group, and how she was careful to conceal him with her body as best she could if they stumbled across any other mages. Gray didn't comment, but Natsu thought it kind of sucked that they had to be so worried about someone turning on him at any moment.

"Get back!" Erza hissed, dragging Gray down behind some rubble and motioning for the others to do the same.

Natsu was all for joining in on the fight they had just stumbled upon, but Lucy yanked him down and gave him a disapproving look. He huffed in irritation, while Happy watched with no little amusement. Erza and Gray took advantage of the cover to crawl along the base of the ruined wall until they could slip around a corner and the group of warring mages and soldiers disappeared from view. Natsu reluctantly followed, if only because Lucy kept a tight grip on his arm. She was no fun.

"Not fair," he grumbled as they started down the next street over to avoid the fight. "There are still all these bad guys I could be fighting right now, but nooo. How come everyone else gets to have all the fun?"

Erza shot him a hard look, Lucy sighed, and Happy snickered, but it was Gray who spoke.

"Calm yourself, flame brain," he said, eyes glittering with amusement and lips curved into a faint smirk. "I already did a number on you."

"Hey!" Natsu scowled at him. "I did worse to you, so there!"

He felt bad as soon as the words left his mouth. Suddenly all he could see were the bandages wrapped over half of his friend and the ugly burns stretched across his skin. Natsu hadn't done all of that damage—Gray had been in other fights before, not to mention his stunt with Zeref—but he had done quite a bit of it. The memories from his time Awake were a bit hazy, but he could still remember the feeling of bone crunching, the smell of singed skin, Gray's cries of pain and the hopeless grief in his eyes. That didn't really seem like anything to brag about.

But Gray just flashed him a sly grin. "I did even worse to myself, so I win either way."

Natsu winced. He didn't really think that was anything to brag about either. He might have said so, too, if Happy hadn't interrupted.

"Are you going back to normal, then?" the Exceed asked, giving Gray a hopeful look.

"Normal?"

"You know, how you sometimes get all weird, but now you're acting more like yourself again. Teasing Natsu and everything. So you'll go back to normal?"

The smile slid off Gray's face, and the humor in his eyes withdrew until it was something old and dark that looked back at them again. "Unlikely," he said expressionlessly, his lips tightening as he stumbled and had to lean on Erza more heavily. "I fear that is no longer practical, nor feasible. It is to be expected that such dramatic upheaval will necessitate assimilation and certain behavioral and psychological modifications."

"English?" Happy asked, his face scrunching up into a frown.

"Things change," Gray said flatly. "People change. I have just changed more than the rest of you."

The girls exchanged looks and Happy opened his mouth, but Natsu hurried to forestall them.

"And now you're back to talking like a dictionary," he said with a huff. "Awesome."

Gray eyed him for a moment, before a sly smile tugged at the corners of his lips again and the flatness in his eyes retreated a little. Although, given the fact that he also darted a quick glance at Happy, his sudden return to good cheer might have been mostly for the benefit of the others.

"You think I sound like a dictionary?" Gray asked, grinning. "You should have heard Invel." Throwing his arms out dramatically and almost dislodging Erza in the process, he adopted a mocking tone as he recited, "'Your paltry chill is naught before my winter.'"

He started snickering as he readjusted his position and limped along by Erza's side. Natsu blinked at him, trying to work through that.

"The hell is that even supposed to mean?" he asked finally.

"That he wasn't impressed with my molding. You should have seen his face when I broke out the devil slayer stuff. Priceless." Gray's overly smug expression faded and he sobered, a frown stealing over his face. "Speaking of him, someone should really go restrain him and the other Spriggans before they wander off and start making more trouble. He's just unconscious since I decided not to kill him at the last second, so he'll wake up eventually."

Lucy shot him a look. "What do you mean, you decided not to kill him at the last second?"

"I almost did," Gray said with a shrug, his eyes suddenly flat and cold again.

"Why?" Happy asked, eyes wide.

"Why not?" Gray asked coldly. It was moments like this when he looked the least human, when he could speak with so little emotion and his eyes glittered with that inhuman darkness.

"That's horrible," Lucy breathed. "You know better than that. You're better than that, Gray."

He met her eyes with a dead, unwavering stare. "Am I?"

"Didn't you say that you started losing control after Invel tried to bind you or something?" Erza asked, clearly unimpressed by Gray's sudden personality shift. Natsu decided that he was going to call them demon-y mood swings from now on. "That that's what started the Awakening process? That's why, right?"

"Mm." Gray fixed his eyes on the debris littering the ground, picking his way around it as the team peered around the corner to make sure they weren't about to walk into another fight. "Yes, well. I nearly killed him. And Juvia. And everyone else."

"But that's not really your fault," Erza said gently, letting her breath out in a soft sigh. "I know how hard you were fighting to keep yourself together. You can only do so much, Gray. You did what you could, and, in the end, you won."

Something unreadable flashed in Gray's eyes before he turned his face away. He didn't respond, just struggled on silently, his posture stiff and unyielding. Natsu sighed, realizing that he was shutting down on them again.

"Where even are we?" he asked, before anyone could start pestering Gray again. Natsu might not be that observant, but he knew when Gray was done talking. "Everything kind of looks the same when it's all equally wrecked."

Magnolia, once bright and full of life, looked more like a post-apocalyptic warzone than anything else. Here and there a building or two still stood, battered and bruised, but most hadn't survived the mages' war. Natsu was suddenly glad that they'd had time to evacuate the civilians even though Eileen had shown up earlier than expected. It would have been a bloodbath.

"We're getting there," Lucy grumbled, shaking her head. "If you actually paid attention, then you might be able to tell…"

Natsu opened his mouth to defend himself, but then Happy hissed out a warning and the team ducked into a nearby alley as heavy footsteps began approaching at a fast pace. The dragon slayer caught a glimpse of half a dozen men in Alvarez colors turning the corner and running down the street in their direction, but then the shadows of the alleyway flared up into a mass that swathed the entrance.

"Hey, wha–?"

Gray's hand shot out and clamped over Natsu's mouth.

"Hush," the ice mage growled in a low voice. "Just because they can't see us doesn't mean they can't hear us."

Natsu briefly considered biting his friend's hand, but Gray pulled it away as if he could hear the dragon slayer's thoughts. Natsu settled for giving him a glare, but waited in silence with the rest of the team until the footsteps retreated and Gray released the shadows again.

"How do you even have any magic left?" Happy asked.

"I don't," Gray rasped. "Probably not a great idea to be using my curses while I'm running on empty, either, but I don't really feel like getting drawn into a fight right now."

"Well, stop that," Erza said with a scowl. "You're supposed to be resting."

"Hard to rest when I'm being dragged all over the ci…ty…" Gray trailed off, his voice taking on a funny inflection, and pulled away from Erza to sway and lean against the wall of the alley. He hung his head and closed his eyes, drawing in a deep breath.

"Hey, are you okay?" Lucy asked, finally finding something other than Natsu's injuries to fuss over.

"Mm…yeah… Give me…a second," Gray mumbled, his words slurred slightly.

No matter what the others asked, he refused to respond to them for a full minute before he finally opened his eyes and pushed himself away from the wall. He swayed again and Erza quickly wrapped an arm around him, adding a quick apology when she brushed against one injury or another and he hissed in pain.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"You gonna faint?" Natsu asked bluntly. "'Cause I, for one, don't feel like hauling you all the way back to the guild."

"Natsu!" Lucy hissed, elbowing him painfully.

"Ow," he complained.

Gray sighed. "I'm fine, just lightheaded."

"Why?"

"From the exsanguination, I'd expect." Gray shrugged and took an unsteady step forward, Erza helping him along as she kept a watchful eye on him.

"Huh?" Natsu asked as the team slipped out of the alley and resumed their trek. "What is ex…sang…something-something?"

"Exsanguination." Gray looked over, amusement flickering in his eyes, and suddenly his demon-y mood swing seemed to have reverted back again. "Noun. The action or process of draining or losing blood. Severe blood loss."

Natsu pulled a face. "Geez, now you even sound like you're reciting dictionary definitions on top of using fancy words. What, do you read dictionaries for fun?"

"You'd be surprised," Gray said, the corners of his lips quirking upward. "I was very dedicated to learning your language. I suspect that I know it far better than you do, and I've only been speaking it for half as long."

Natsu's face scrunched up as he stared at his friend in bewilderment. Gray had always been something of an enigma, but he had become about a thousand times more incomprehensible over the past few days.

"You know," the dragon slayer said finally, "I think I actually preferred it back when you couldn't talk."

"Natsu!" Erza and Lucy said in unison, giving him nearly identical looks of horrified outrage. Even Happy had the nerve to look affronted.

Natsu just scowled. Okay, so maybe he shouldn't make fun of Gray's mutilated speech when he'd first woken up. It had actually been pretty heart-stoppingly terrifying for a few minutes, if only because they hadn't known what was wrong with him. But still.

Then Natsu winced and darted a look at Gray, suddenly worried that he had managed to initiate another demon-y mood swing. Thankfully, Gray's eyes were still shining with amusement.

"But then who would put you in your place?" he asked, grinning.

Natsu rolled his eyes, but Erza shushed him as they snuck around another group of dueling mages. He was finally getting an idea of where they were. The buildings in this part of the city had weathered the war much better than in the sector they had just been walking through. They had certainly sustained damage, but many more of them were still standing. It would be a pain to repair them all, but it was better than nothing.

The team fell into an uneasy silence as they picked their way through the debris-strewn streets and kept an eye out for enemies or any other potential threats. Gray's good humor had melted away into what seemed to be a haze of exhaustion and pain. His face was set in hard lines and his eyes had a faraway look, giving the impression that he wasn't paying much attention anymore. Even Natsu found himself starting to zone out as his injuries and weariness began catching up with him in earnest.

Thankfully the rest of their journey was short and uneventful, and the next thing he knew, Lucy was pulling him into the guild hall. It was a little worse for wear, half the roof of the main room torn off and plenty of splintered wood to spare, but it was still standing. And honestly, considering how many times it had been destroyed before and how much damage it could take just from Natsu and Gray's fights, it wasn't even really that bad.

They made their way to the backroom, which turned out to be intact.

"You can stay here and get some sleep," Erza said, looking around in satisfaction.

"Although it doesn't look very comfortable…" Lucy said doubtfully.

Gray shrugged and pulled away from Erza to stagger a few paces and sink to the ground with his back pressed against the wall. "I've spent the last God knows how many days stuck in a cell, so this is practically five-star accommodations. And flame brain over there could fall asleep in five seconds flat no matter how uncomfortable the conditions were. I think we'll manage."

The others exchanged looks but nodded.

"We're going to help with the cleanup, but we'll be hanging around the guild," Erza said. "Shout if you need us. We won't go far. Happy will wait right outside to keep an eye out for anyone coming."

"And don't leave," Lucy added, giving Gray an anxious look. "We meant it that we'd figure things out."

"I can barely move," Gray grumbled, a scowl stealing over his face. "I couldn't run off even if I wanted to."

"Well… Just make sure to get some rest. You guys have been through a lot."

Happy and the girls finally left, although there were many backward glances on the way out. Natsu sighed and stretched out, even though the floor was hard and uncomfortable. He was tired enough that he'd undoubtedly fall asleep anyway.

Apparently Gray could too, given that he had spent a few moments looking for the position that would least aggravate his injuries and then settled down, half curled up in what looked like a rather awkward position to Natsu. Natsu watched him silently for all of two seconds before he couldn't contain himself anymore.

"Are you sure it's not a problem that my Book is missing?"

"Yes," Gray mumbled, not opening his eyes. "You aren't bound to it anymore."

"But you weren't bound to your Book when you started Awakening…"

That startled Gray's eyes open. He furrowed his brow, eyes going glassy as he thought it through. An edge of uncertainty hung about him for a few seconds, but then he seemed to shrug it off.

"It took something pretty drastic to initiate an Awakening in me," he said. "Invel's binding was incredibly strong. Ninety-nine percent of magics wouldn't be strong enough for that. And anyway, you're different. I'd think it would be even harder to catalyze an Awakening in you now that you're double-bound to your body again. I'm not sure it's even possible, honestly. I was pretty thorough about severing you from all the demonic stuff. You don't have the same disadvantages I do."

"But–"

"Don't worry about the Book, flame brain."

Natsu was silent for a long moment before saying, "I really hope you're right. It was really horrible, being out of control and two seconds away from killing anyone and everyone. I can't imagine having been Awake for as long as you."

Gray sighed, picking up on Natsu's sympathy. "When you were Awake, did it bother you that you were tearing Acnologia apart and might kill anyone who crossed your path?"

"Well, no…"

"Then why would it have bothered me?" Gray asked coldly, his eyes going flat again.

Natsu winced. It might not have bothered him while he was Awake, but it had definitely bothered him once he'd snapped out of it. He had a feeling that it would haunt him for a long time.

Even if it didn't bother you then, it's so, so obvious that it bothers you now…

"But–"

"Go to sleep," Gray interrupted, closing his eyes and tilting his head away.

Natsu gnawed on the inside of his cheek, knowing he should leave this alone but finding himself unable to. Usually he would have no problem ignoring mushy emotional things, but after getting a glimpse into the horror that was Gray's life, he found it impossible to pretend that it had never happened.

"It was really…scary," he said into the silence, even though the admission made some part of him wither and die in shame. "Knowing that I could have killed anyone."

Gray sighed wearily, apparently resigning himself to assuaging Natsu's fears before being able to get some much needed sleep. "On the bright side, the only one you actually killed was Acnologia. It could have been a lot worse."

That wasn't reassuring. It was true that Acnologia was a real threat and killing him might have been the only way to get rid of him for good, but… Yes, Natsu felt a vicious satisfaction at getting revenge on Igneel's murderer, but it was still disturbing to realize that he had killed someone simply because he had to. That wasn't something to be treated lightly.

"Yeah, but what if Lucy had run over?" he asked. "Or if I had killed you? Or if you hadn't been able to stop me?"

"Natsu, you didn't have a choice, not really." Gray pillowed his head on his arm and let his gaze drift to the ceiling. "It would have been horrible, I'm not saying that it wouldn't be, but it wouldn't really be your fault, either. If you want to blame anyone, blame Zeref. He fucked up a lot of people's lives."

"I know." Natsu tried to bore a hole into Gray's skull with the intensity of his gaze. "So why do you still blame yourself for everything? Because I've experienced an Awakening, and I know that you had no choice. How can it be your fault if you had no say in the matter?"

Gray jerked in surprise, his gaze snapping to meet Natsu's. For a second there was something raw and vulnerable in his eyes, but then his face rearranged itself into hard, unyielding lines.

"Go the hell to sleep already," he growled, flipping over so that he wasn't facing Natsu anymore.

Natsu stared at his friend's back, absently noting that his attempts at comfort hadn't gone very well. Gray had always been a stubborn idiot.

"Gray…"

"For the love of– What now?"

"Are you sure that I can't Awaken again? Because I really don't want to."

"Is this about the Book again? It's not an issue, flame brain. Relax."

"It's just… I don't want… I, uh…"

Despite himself, Gray rolled back over with a wince, apparently hearing something in Natsu's voice. Maybe that edge of fear or pain or uncertainty. Because even if this Awakening business had only lasted a few minutes for Natsu, it had entirely changed everything, flipped the world upside down. To have his free will taken away in the blink of an eye, lose his ability to reason and make decisions, have no choice or conscience about things he would normally never do… It had truly shaken him, and he couldn't believe how nonchalant Gray could act about the whole thing even though it obviously bothered him too.

Natsu felt a new kind of kinship with his friend now that they had shared such a horrible experience and gained an intimate understanding about it. And a new kind of respect, too, if only because Natsu had no idea how Gray was strong enough to keep his sanity intact. Or even because of how long the ice mage had staved off his own Awakening. Natsu had been able to fight his off for a few seconds when Gray had gotten through to him, but that had been almost impossibly difficult and he doubted he would have been able to hold on much longer. He had no idea how Gray had managed to hold out for so long.

"I'm sorry that it even happened in the first place," Gray said. "I was supposed to get your Book before Zeref had the chance to open it." Natsu opened his mouth to protest that it wasn't Gray's fault, but found that he couldn't form the words when he was caught in the ice mage's gaze. Gray's eyes were so fierce and determined, yet almost gentle at the same time. "Natsu, I will not let that happen again. You are safe now. From that, at least. While you are under my protection, I will do everything in my power to prevent it. You will not Awaken again."

Natsu swallowed hard. Maybe he shouldn't find that as reassuring as he did, if only because he wasn't entirely sure that Gray could really follow through on that promise. But it was comforting anyway, and made him feel…safe. Because he believed that Gray meant every word he said. Although Natsu would usually rail against the idea of being protected by his rival, this felt different. Warmer.

"But who will protect you?" he whispered before he thought better of it.

The genuine warmth on Gray's face disappeared as his expression closed off. "Go to sleep."

"We're still here if you need us, too. Me and the rest of the guild. We don't want anything to happen to you either. Because that's horrible and you don't deserve it and we'll fight for you too."

There was a long, heavy pause.

"…Go to sleep, squinty eyes."

One corner of Natsu's mouth twitched upward. The return of the nicknames was surely a good thing. Maybe Gray had gotten the message, even if he wouldn't acknowledge it. But there was one last thing…

"Gray?"

"If I could move, I would strangle you right now."

Natsu choked back a laugh at Gray's grumpiness, but quickly sobered again. "Thank you."

For a long moment, nothing moved and silence hung heavy over the room. Then Gray opened his eyes and studied Natsu. Natsu thought he'd probably just brush this off like he'd done earlier, but then he sighed.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "And thank you too, flame brain."

Natsu drew in a breath, but Gray scowled and flipped back over.

"Go to sleep."

Natsu smiled and stayed silent, listening until Gray's breathing evened out and he was sure his friend was asleep. Rolling onto his back, he wriggled about to look for a less uncomfortable position on the floor, and then settled down to stare up at the ceiling blankly until his drowsiness finally started overtaking him in earnest.

"You're welcome," he whispered around a yawn. "And goodness knows I wish you could see what we see when we look at you, you lovable idiot."

Note: He's just that annoying person who won't shut up when all you want to do is sleep XD I was originally going to tack on the next part to this, but I decided to leave it on this nice note and turn it into a two-shot, hence the parenthetical number. It happens sometimes lol

emmahoshi: Lol yeah, it's mostly a lot of work because I'm also writing parts of it out of order, and the way Gray, especially, thinks changes over time. That's the hardest part to keep straight X) Ha ha, you gotta appreciate that books are finally getting the attention they deserve! ...Albeit negative attention, but we'll take what we can get. Omg, USB shadow XD Well, Erza can be a bit more practical and levelheaded, and definitely more so than Natsu lol You probably won't be thrilled with Lyon for a while X) But he'll come around. The Book will come up again within the next few chapters :3 And yeah, the way Gray looks at the guild vs other humans vs anyone perceived as a threat is different, and his thinking can be a bit callous and black and white at times. We'll work on that lol