Note: And here's version 2. Why a second version? I dunno. Apparently at the time, I thought it was a good idea ._. All I really remember about writing these was that it was during Harvey when I was staying up all night to keep an eye on the flood gauges, and I was super sleep-deprived and didn't feel like writing so I spent foreeeever staring at the screen and dragged it out for days. And when I finally went back recently to edit, I was like, he...he...he...~ (what have I done? D':). But anyway, I was too lazy to do a better job editing X) Soooorry~

Guests: Yes, my sister is the one who inspired the Grayza because Erza is her fav and she likes it. She's also the one who pressured me into watching FT in the first place, so you can thank her for everything I've ever written XD And yeah, Gray started thinking of himself as "Gray" right at the end of "Gray (2)" at the end of segment 2 (hence the title ;) ). Someone else was also like, "Whoa, when did he start thinking of himself as Gray again? How have I missed this for half a dozen chapters?!" Apparently I'm just so smoooth LOL

Funky: You're right, there's more angst coming :3 Being the sadist I am, I'm just excited for the moment where everything goes to hell again :) Sappy, fluffy things are all well and good, but I'm in it for the tragedy! XD And yeah, I've seen a few people spell Gray with an "e", but most people don't. I've seen some people call him Gray but then spell "grey" with an "e" if it ever comes up in the narrative not as his name. I mean, whatever floats your boat, I guess XD

Emiko: Yeeep, makes me wonder why I wrote so many sickeningly sweet things...but then I remember that everything is going to hell soon so I should let the charries have their fluff while they can XD

Surrogate [V2]

"I can save the real Gray, put his soul back into his body so that he can live again. Doesn't that sound nice?"

Gray tilted his head and watched the dark-haired man in horrified fascination, but the object of his attention had eyes only for a flabbergasted Lyon. Really, they ought to stop inviting Lyon along for things. He must be a bad luck charm or something. Actually, Gray should also stop taking any job requests that specifically asked for him or were quite obviously meant for him, and any that were fishing for both him and Lyon had to be double trouble.

He drifted forward a step, his hand absently rising to press against the outer barrier of the magic circle, but jerked back with a hiss of pain as the magic shocked him. Lyon darted a look at him as he retreated a couple steps, and his eyes were wide and pained and confused.

"It probably wouldn't work," Gray said.

"It would so!" the dark mage growled, shooting him a nasty look. "We almost had you last time, demon."

Gray frowned. "Excuse me?"

"We laid that perfect trap for you, lured you down, and Gerald just about finished the transplant process before your crazy guildmates came charging in and ruined everything."

"…Oh. Gerald? Really? What a silly name for a dark mage."

"Wait, what?" Lyon asked, finally finding his voice although it was a bit raspy. He looked between Gray and the dark mage, and then even glanced back at the rest of the team.

"Long story," Gray muttered. "How'd you get away? I thought they arrested you all."

This had to be one of the mages from the dark guild that had kidnapped him a few months back and stuck their leader's soul in him. That didn't inspire confidence since they had, in fact, nearly managed to permanently transplant another soul in him, but they'd also been fairly incompetent about everything else and their soul mage was—hopefully—locked up in prison.

"I was up top when the lightning monster tore through," said the man in a decidedly sulky fashion. Lightning monster indeed. Gray would have to remember that one to use on Laxus later. "I stayed out of the way."

"Awesome, I didn't get the chance to beat you assholes up last time," Natsu growled, inching forward a step from where he was standing rigid beside Happy and the girls. "And I really wanted to."

"Stay back," the dark mage said. He flicked a hand and the magic circle around Gray tightened a couple inches. Gray retreated another step toward the center, and Natsu stopped moving.

"Dammit," the dragon slayer muttered.

The girls shifted restlessly, but no one made any other premature moves. If worst came to worst, they'd fight like hell. But as long as Gray was trapped in this stupid thing, they were being cautious.

"Give it up," Erza said coldly. "We're not going to let you play your little games, so you might as well let him out."

"No," snapped the dark mage. "I'm going to resurrect the real Gray."

"Why?" Lyon asked hoarsely.

"What do you mean, why?"

"Why do you even care? If you're just some dark mage with no connection to us?"

"Partly I like the idea of justice, and partly this is just revenge for what he and his friends did to my guild. Revenge that you'll benefit from, I might add. I did my homework. I know how close you were to Gray and how deeply you were affected by the demon stealing his body. Honestly, I thought you'd be jumping at the chance. Why do you think I asked for you to come along?"

"You aren't a seith mage," Gray observed, uninterested in the whole long spiel. "I highly doubt you could perform such specialized soul magic. And in any case, Gray's soul was lost years and years ago, and no seith mage preserved it. You're looking at the impossible."

"Shut up," he growled. "Gerald left some things behind. I can do it."

"You can't…" Lyon trailed off and shook his head, his gaze jumping between Gray and the dark mage. His face was white and a tremor ran through his body.

"Don't you want him back?" the dark mage wheedled. "Stop putting up a fuss and just let me do this real fast."

"The chances of it working are extremely low, hovering right about zero," Gray told Lyon quietly. A faint, melancholy smile tugged at one corner of his lips, and he dropped his gaze to the floor. "But if you want to try it…"

"What?" Lucy demanded. "You can't just–!"

"You're such an idiot," Natsu grumbled.

Gray stayed quiet. This was probably impossible, but on the very, very slim chance that it might work… Well, didn't the original Gray deserve another chance at the life that had been stolen from him? If Lyon wanted to take that chance on a wish and a prayer, Gray wouldn't stop him.

"I…" Lyon trailed into silence again.

"I thought you'd be more excited, honestly." The dark mage sounded a little peeved about this failure on Lyon's part. "But don't worry, you'll thank me when it's over."

"Like hell you're gonna–" Natsu broke off and the scuffing of his sandals on the floor immediately ceased as the magic circle constricted.

It slammed into Gray and sent him stumbling back with a muffled curse. He clutched at his singed arm and eyed the flickering yellow light warily.

"Stop it!" Lucy cried.

The dark mage shrugged. Apparently tiring of games—and, perhaps, no longer finding it quite as entertaining to mess with Lyon's head—he turned to Gray and lifted his hands. A sickly orange light spilled from them, the magic building up in the air.

Gray braced himself. He fully expected this to be a colossal failure, but he hoped that there wouldn't be any unsavory side effects.

Erza and Natsu lunged for the dark mage, swords and fire flying. Lyon stood frozen, staring at Gray with torn, unhappy eyes. A tired smile flitted over Gray's face, and Lyon turned away.

A wise choice, perhaps, for all the good it would do. It stung, just a little, but Gray understood.

Natsu smashed into the crazy mage and shoved him to the ground, but the damage was already done. The spell slammed into Gray, sending him reeling. It electrified his entire body, making his limbs spasm and his chest constrict. He crashed to his knees, and his sharp keening was cut off as the air got stuck in his throat and he lost the ability to breathe.

He must have blacked out for a few seconds, because the next thing he knew, Lucy was crouched beside him and brushing the hair from his face as she peered down at him with worried eyes.

"Gray? Gray, are you okay?"

"Yeah," he rasped with some difficulty. It still felt like his throat was closed up, and just forcing breaths out was hard enough, much less words.

He levered himself up on one arm, and it trembled with strain. Actually, his other hand was shaking as well. Maybe an aftereffect from the magic. Everything hurt, with sharp, stabbing pains frequently breaking through the dull ache pervading his entire body.

"We should get you back to Wendy." Lucy hovered uncertainly, but reluctantly helped Gray heave himself to his feet when she realized that he was going to stand up with or without her help.

"It's fine," he wheezed, swaying slightly before steadying himself. "That stuff really packs a punch, but I think I'm just sore."

Happy dropped onto Lucy's shoulder and eyed him with a frown. "Considering he was trying to mess with soul magic, it wouldn't hurt to have Wendy make sure that nothing else is wrong…"

Gray shrugged, unable to deny that. He shook his head to clear it and began assessing the situation. The magic circle was gone, no doubt because Erza and Natsu had pounded the dark mage into unconsciousness and were now working on restraining him and rummaging through his pockets to make sure he didn't have anything dangerous on him.

Lyon hadn't moved a muscle and was staring at Gray with an almost dazed expression. Gray shrugged at him in some sort of silent apology, a sorry it didn't work, but what can you do about it? Lyon looked away.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Erza asked as she straightened up and gave Gray a searching look.

"Yup, I'll just sleep it off. Let's hurry and finish up here so that we can go home and I can lie down."

She nodded. "I just want to check this building first. It looks like he might have collected some nasty things that it would be better to remove. Let's do a quick sweep."

Natsu was evidently not interested in doing a quick sweep, and instead turned on Lyon with blazing eyes and a furious scowl. "And what the hell did you think you were doing, huh? You were right next to him, but you weren't even going to–?"

Gray had hobbled over during the dragon slayer's rant, and now placed a restraining hand on his arm. "Leave him be. Let's help Erza so we can head out."

Natsu hesitated, but then shot Lyon one last glare and stomped off to ransack the shelves. The others threw Lyon looks as well before moving off. Gray limped over to rummage through drawers, eager to finish up here as quickly as possible. His head was pounding and his body ached and all his energy had been sapped out of him, and all he wanted to do was collapse in bed and go to sleep.

He darted frequent looks at Lyon, but the ice mage never looked up. He helped the Fairy Tail mages search the room silently and collect the contraband, but very pointedly looked at no one. That stung even more than going along with the scheme in the first place, because at least that choice had been expected. Now he was so disappointed it hadn't worked that he couldn't even look at Gray. And Gray understood, but he hoped it wasn't permanent, that something hadn't just broken beyond repair.

"I think that's good enough," Erza said finally. She eyed Gray as he sighed in relief and leaned heavily against the wall. "Let's get this guy to the Knights and head back. Don't run off, Gray. I want Wendy to look you over when we get back. And maybe Bickslow too."

"I'm sure it's fine."

"You will have Wendy check you out," she said. Gray held his hands up in surrender. No one defied Erza when she gave orders like that. "Although," she added, giving him a hard look as she leaned in and lowered her voice, "I would feel worse for you if I didn't think you could have broken out of that circle at any time."

Gray winced and looked away. He had offered up the choice to Lyon and wouldn't have gone back on it, even if the magic circle had been weak enough to break.

"I'm sure you guys can get him to the Knights," Lyon said, and it was the first time he'd spoken since the dark mage's unsuccessful attempt to resurrect a long-dead child. He still didn't look at anyone. "I'm heading out."

"Hey!" Natsu protested. "You can't just–"

Gray shoved him none too gently and chewed on the inside of his cheek as he watched Lyon slip out of the room with his eyes still fixed on the floor. His heart sank, heavy as a stone. He wished that he and Lyon weren't leaving things on such unstable ground.

"Let's just hurry up and get rid of this guy," he said quietly.

"What a jerk," Natsu muttered, shooting one last nasty look at the door through which Lyon had just disappeared. "I can't believe he'd do that, after everything."

"I'm sure he was just paralyzed," Lucy said reassuringly. "I mean, it was a surprise for him and he just had a slow reaction time. I'm sure it wasn't…like that."

"It'll work out," Erza added confidently. "You guys have been getting on so well, and he'll come around. Just give him some time to figure out what he's feeling."

Yeah, Gray would give him time. But he was worried, too. He and Lyon had been slowly rebuilding their relationship and were making great progress with it, but it was still a fairly new venture and a bit fragile. He really hoped that this didn't shatter the delicate balance they'd achieved and send them back to square one.

Gray was afraid that he and Lyon were back at square one. It had been nearly two weeks, and he hadn't seen even as much as a glimpse of Lyon. Normally this might not be a big deal, but given the note they'd left things on… Well, Gray had the sinking feeling that their renewed friendship had just suffered a serious setback.

He tried to tamp down the hurt and play along with day-to-day life. There were no lasting side effects from his brush with soul—'soul'?—magic, and although the fire zapping along his nerves had been fairly resistant to Wendy's magic and left him achy and sore for nearly a week, all that had faded by now. Everything was fine, and he studiously pretended that he wasn't spending his days with one eye on the door.

For all the good it did.

"Come on, Gray, let's do a job," Erza said firmly, slapping a page from the job board down on the table in front of him. "It's been a while."

"Eh, maybe I'll pass today."

"…You know, staring at the door isn't going to magically make him come walking through it. You've been hanging around for days. You're not going to miss him if you come out on a job with us."

…Maybe he was more transparent than he thought. Gray shifted uncomfortably, embarrassed to have been caught out.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "I guess."

"We even got one on Mt. Hakobe," Natsu said, bouncing on his heels. "All cold and crap, just for you. So stop moping around and let's go!"

Gray tilted his head and studied his friend curiously. Natsu never sounded that excited about going into the cold. Weird.

But it wasn't like he could say no without making it super obvious that he was still moping, so he let his friends drag him off. At least Hakobe wasn't far, so they'd be back quickly. Gray didn't want to miss Lyon if he came. Not that it was looking likely that he'd come at this point.

He trailed along behind the team with far less enthusiasm, although he put on a good show of being involved. But honestly, how was he supposed to be as excited as them? They were downright fidgety. He wondered what was up with them.

He didn't get his answer until they'd traipsed right up to the base of the mountain and the other gathering of mages came into view. His footsteps faltered and then slowed to a stop. Lyon was huddled with his team, discussing whatever the hell it was they were discussing.

Gray stared. No way had both teams accidentally taken the same job. That was rare enough already, and there was no way it would happen again so soon after last time.

Sherry spotted the Fairy Tail mages and her face lit up. "Hey, guys!" she called, waving cheerfully.

"…What in the world is going on here?" Gray asked.

Lyon turned sharply, his eyes widening. "What–?"

Clearly, he was not in on this either.

Gray stepped back, but Erza grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the others despite how he tried to dig in his heels. Panic welled up in his chest, that feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong.

The surprise didn't fade from Lyon's eyes, but he dropped his gaze to the ground. Again. Well, at least they'd found something to make him look at Gray for a couple seconds.

"Right," said Erza. "We're tired of watching you two mope around over each other. Lyon's team came to see us a few days ago and figure out what was up with him, and we decided that you two needed a push to work things out. So now you're going to go do this job and talk things out."

"But–" Gray wilted under Erza's glare as she braced her hands on her hips and adopted an attitude that brooked no argument. Still, he mumbled, "I'm not sure that's a good idea."

"Of course it is. We set everything up. We even got you a job up in the snow. And you'd better believe that we'll be waiting for you to finish, so you had better actually talk, got that?"

"…Yeah."

Lyon whispered something to Sherry, who whacked him on the arm and scowled.

"You will," she said authoritatively, and Gray eyed her in awe. She was usually such a sweet little thing, but suddenly she seemed as scary as Erza. "You've been sulking for weeks, and it sounds like Gray has too. You two need to figure this out already. You're hurting each other by trying to ignore the problem. Now go."

Toby and Yuka, understandably, looked less enthusiastic about this plan, but Sherry was clearly the one in charge at the moment. Lyon grumbled something and turned away, and she smiled sadly at his back. Then she turned that smile on Gray, who fidgeted and looked away.

But there was no denying women when they got it into their heads what they wanted to do, and Gray and Lyon soon found themselves shepherded up the side of the mountain.

"Hey, slanty-eyed bastard!" Natsu yelled after them. "Don't screw it up!"

Gray threw a dubious glance back at his friend and a sidelong one at Lyon, but the ice mage didn't even look up. They walked in silence until their teams had faded from sight, and then Gray smoothed out the job request that Lucy had shoved into his hand before sending him on his way.

He read it over again and cleared his throat. "I was thinking…given the, ah, the pattern of villages and outposts attacked, the vulcan nest is probably on the western face."

His voice sounded funny in his ears, and he really hoped he was imagining that odd quality and it wasn't something Lyon could pick up on. He shot another surreptitious glance at Lyon, who was still plodding along with his eyes fixed on the ground.

"…Yeah," his companion said finally. He didn't look up.

"There are some, uh, some big caves over there for them to hide in, too," Gray added, eager to fill the awkward silence. "I know a pretty likely spot. You know, with the caves. Because there's a whole system of them there. I mean… Yeah."

"Sure."

Gray bit down on his lower lip until the taste of copper flooded his mouth, and tried to stop his shoulders from slumping in defeat as he dropped his own gaze to the ground. This was just as bad as he'd feared it would be.

He watched the rocky ground go by underfoot and the snow crunch under his boots for several long minutes, and the silence dragged on. He kept sneaking looks at Lyon. Not once did he catch Lyon sneaking a look back.

Finally, he stopped. There was a few seconds' delay before the sound of Lyon's footsteps paused as well.

"Gray?"

"I'll take care of the job," he said to the ground, his voice quiet. "You can just…I don't know, stay here or whatever. I'll tell them we talked."

"What? Why? I'll do it with you."

"…Lyon, you can't even stand to look at me anymore. I get that it's disappointing it didn't work and I'm sorry, but I'm not going to drag you along with me when you're so clearly miserable. Just… I'll tell them we took care of it, and they should leave you alone."

When Lyon didn't respond, Gray crumpled the job request into a ball and shoved it into his pocket along with his hands. He walked over and stepped around his companion to continue on, only stopping when cold fingers latched onto him. He blinked down uncomprehendingly at the hand curled tightly around his wrist, and then finally looked up at Lyon.

"It's not like that," Lyon said in a low voice, still staring at the ground. "It's not that I'm…disappointed. It's that I'm ashamed."

"I don't… I don't understand."

"I froze," he muttered. "I hesitated. I sat still. I made a bad choice in the heat of the moment. Or, at least, I didn't make the right one. I let it happen. And I shouldn't have."

"Shouldn't…?" Gray was at a loss. "Whyever not? It worked out the way you wanted it to, didn't it?" He winced and hurried to correct himself. "I mean, it didn't actually work and I know that's kind of disappointing, but–"

"You idiot!" Lyon burst out.

He finally looked up, and Gray flinched at the desperate frustration written across his face and the sheen of unshed tears in his eyes. That was wrong. It would be like seeing Natsu cry—it just didn't happen, not unless something was really, really wrong.

"Lyon, are you–?"

"I'm not disappointed that it didn't work! I'm horrified because it could have!"

"But–" Gray sucked in a breath with a hiss as Lyon's grip on his wrist tightened even further, cutting off the circulation. "But you would have gotten the real Gray back."

"But at what cost?" Lyon asked quietly, the fight draining out of him. He released Gray and half turned away as he returned to watching the ground.

"I don't understand."

"For one, who knows what it might have done to him, even if we could…? Well, think about it. We'd be throwing a kid who's been dead for well over a decade into a grown body in a world he doesn't understand and thinks he's a demon, with a bunch of people he doesn't know claiming to be his friends. It would be a lot, and who knows what other side effects there might be? It's best not to go messing with the past. What's done is done."

Gray eyed Lyon cautiously, not entirely sure what to make of his odd moods. "Yes, the thought had crossed my mind, but you would have been here to help him adjust. He could've relied on you."

"Yeah," Lyon mumbled, "but I still would have lost you."

"…Yes? I guess so. But you would have had the real Gray–"

"The other Gray."

"Fine, fine, the other Gray. You would have had him, and you would have been happy."

"…No."

"No?"

Lyon hunched his shoulders and his nails dug into his palms. "Don't get me wrong, I love him. I miss him. I wish he got the chance to grow up and I got the chance to see how he turned out. I want him to be alive. I want to tease him about stupid shit and be there for him when he's hurting and be the friend and brother I always wished I was.

"But not at the cost of your life."

Gray exhaled with a faint sigh, suddenly feeling heavy and tired. "It's a fair enough trade, don't you think? A life for a life? And he would've been the better end of the bargain, honestly. You know, if it would have actually worked. To maybe give back what I took in the first place."

"That…is not how it works." Lyon's shoulders hunched further as he crossed his arms and huddled over as if he wasn't feeling well or was trying to disappear. "It's not that black and white. I…I love you, you know? You aren't his substitute. You aren't the copy I keep around because I can't have the original anymore, the one I'd trade in at the slightest chance.

"He was my brother, you know? A surrogate brother, but it adds up to be the same thing. And you are too. A surrogate brother, not his surrogate. I care about you in your own right, not just because you have his face. Which makes choices like the one that guy gave me impossible, because I love you both the same, even if in slightly different ways."

Gray rocked back on his heels, his mouth twisting in an odd way as he stared at Lyon, who was still resolutely avoiding eye contact. He had never…really thought about it like that before. He had never put himself on a level playing field with the original Gray, and he wasn't really sure how Lyon could. Maybe it was just an overly positive picture, but he felt the tangled knot he'd been suppressing in his chest ease just a little.

"O-oh, I…" He trailed off, having no idea what to say to that.

"I didn't mean to hurt you."

Gray stiffened at the raw, husky quality of Lyon's voice. "You didn't," he said hurriedly, wanting to smooth out whatever it was his friend was upset over. "I mean, that magic packed a punch and hurt like hell for a few days, but then it went away and I'm totally fine. Totally fine. Nothing's wrong."

Lyon looked up then, and Gray froze at the sight of the tears glimmering in his eyes. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

This wasn't about physical pain, and Gray quashed down that gnarled mess of hurt as quickly as Lyon threatened to make it resurface. In the end, whatever it stung, it wasn't the major issue. It had been a valid choice and Gray understood its appeal, even agreed with it.

"It's okay," he said.

"No. No, it's not okay. I hate that I hurt you. I said I'd come back for you, I said we'd work things out, and then I went and ruined everything. You didn't deserve that. That's why I can't look you in the eye." On cue, Lyon bowed his head again. His voice wavered. "And because I hate seeing you look at me like that, like it's okay when it's not. Like you understand because you know it should have been an easy decision to choose him over you. Like it hurts but you accept it because it's somehow right. I hate that I made you think like that."

"I…I…" Gray shook his head helplessly. His heart ached, not that small but sharp sting of having someone chosen over him, but a helpless hurt at seeing Lyon so upset and not knowing how to help. "You were upset that you hurt me, so you started avoiding me?" he asked stupidly, not seeing the logic. "How was that supposed to make it hurt less?"

"No." Lyon buried his face in his hands. "That was just me running away. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have, but…"

"It's okay, really." Gray hesitated but then reached out to pull him into a hug. After a moment of resistance, Lyon buried his face in Gray's chest and began crying in earnest.

"I'm sorry," he moaned. "I feel horrible."

Gray held Lyon close and ran his fingers through his hair, internally panicking. "It's okay, it's okay. We're going to be okay. You didn't ruin anything, alright? I mean, unless you're going to keep avoiding me."

"I'm so sorry."

"Shh, there's no reason to be. It's like you said. It was the heat of the moment and you froze. No big deal. It was just a bad situation."

"I shouldn't have hesitated, though. I should've said no right away and stopped it."

"No, you–"

"And," Lyon mumbled into Gray's chest, his voice breaking, "I hate that little part of me that is disappointed that it didn't work."

His body shook with sobs and heaving breaths, and Gray's heart clenched up. Lyon was leaning against him heavily, almost deadweight, and Gray finally lowered them to sit amid the rocks and snow.

"It's okay," he crooned. "Of course there is. Human emotions aren't so black and white. There will always be a part of you that wants the other Gray back more, a part of you that resents me for the things I've done. And that's okay."

"I want it to go away," Lyon wailed.

"I don't. It's part of what makes you who you are, and I like you just the way you are." Gray sighed and rested his chin on Lyon's head. "We all have those pieces. Everyone has that bitter edge that they try to suppress. Hell, there's still a piece of me that's dying to tear the world apart, as much as I try not to acknowledge it. You aren't the only one. It's normal."

Lyon sniffled loudly. "Maybe, but I'm sorry anyway."

"And that means a lot, really. It means a lot that you care so much, especially since we had a really rough patch there. But I don't want you to hurt yourself over it, okay?"

Lyon sniffed again, but his sobbing was dying down now. "You know," he mumbled, "even though a lot of really bad things had to happen and you and I and everyone had to suffer a lot to get here…I'm glad that I got to meet you."

Gray swallowed hard past the lump in his throat. "Even…on the days when I didn't think it was worth it…I was still thankful that I got to meet you and the others."

Lyon's hand tightened, but they sat in relative silence for a few minutes, Lyon sniffling and calming himself down while Gray waited patiently. Then Gray dropped his hand to curl in the snow.

"Hey, Lyon?"

"What?"

When he didn't answer, Lyon finally looked up with reddened eyes. Gray smiled and gently pressed the handful of snow into his face. Lyon reeled back in surprise, spluttering as he tried to brush it off.

"Hey!" he said. "What was that for?"

"The problem with refusing to look at me is that it leaves you wide open to snowballs."

Lyon bit his lip and forced himself to meet Gray's eyes. "Sorry. I'll work on it."

"Good." Gray summoned up a grin. "This face is too pretty not to look at."

"Oh boy." Lyon rolled his eyes, and it was about the most beautiful expression Gray had ever seen. "I see you've only managed to get more conceited."

"Well, maybe if you'd actually been around to keep me in line…"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll stop avoiding you."

Gray's smile took on a hopeful edge. Maybe this had been a little bit of a setback, but they could work things out again. And maybe they had needed something like this to really understand what they meant to each other. Gray felt more confident about his place in Lyon's eyes now, felt better about it than he had in a long time, and maybe that would be worth the heartache in the end.

"But you do know that after avoiding me for so long, you totally owe me."

Lyon winced. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Whatever you want."

"Awesome," Gray said cheerily. "After we're done here, you can buy me ice cream."

Lyon stared at him. "Ice…cream?"

"Yup. It's been forever since I've had any, but since you're buying…" He grinned and stood, pulling Lyon up with him. "Let's hurry up and take care of some vulcans so we can get ice cream!"

Lyon finally laughed and returned the smile, and it was worth all the ice cream in the world.

Note: And in the next chapter, we have action! Also, badassery! Also, pain and suffering! Yaaaay lol (I'm such a horrible person XD)

emmahoshi: I was too stressed to stress-eat ._. Yeah, I feel like Gray is really good at picking up on every little thing like this and he's really sensitive to them, which can sometimes lead to issues. When I was in chemistry, I eventually got so frustrated with my incompetent lab partner and the stupid experiments that I'd just make up data if they weren't working out properly :X Our teacher also never taught us anything, so I didn't feel as bad as I should have lol Lyon needs some emotional maturity to make up for what a wreck he was before lol We always just kind of shared food (although for the things that mostly only I eat, I sometimes keep them in my room so everyone else keeps their grubby hands off them :X), but I wonder if we'd be more territorial if the family was significantly larger XD Ugh, now you're making me want ice cream X)