The next morning, Lyon woke up when he thought he'd heard something. Turning his head towards the door, he softly called out to Gray, but heard no movement. The sound hadn't been very loud. Maybe he'd just imagi—

The sound of a body stumbling and heavy breathing was real enough. He sprang out of bed, looking to find Gray gone from the living room. He hadn't fallen off the couch, then. Hearing the breathing from the kitchen, he went in there, and instantly knew what had happened.

Gray sat huddled against the wall, knees drawn up, arms resting on top of them in a manner suggesting he was trying to keep his trembling hands as far away as possible. On the floor by the counter was a ruptured container of sea salt. Gray must have knocked it over while trying to find something. It appears that he'd bent down to pick it up, only for his hands to find the scattered grains instead of the container.

Lyon kneeled before him, trying to calm him down as he looked at his hands. He didn't see any new injuries, but there were grains of salt sticking to the skin. He rose and went to the sink, wetted a dish towel, and returned to gently wipe the salt off his hands. As soon as he was done, Gray crossed his arms over his knees and hid his face upon them. He was still breathing too fast, but was starting to calm.

Lyon kept his voice low and steady as he said, "Gray, what can I do?... Say something. What do you need?"

He shook his head, unwilling to use his hands to speak. Lyon just waited patiently, as Gray's shallow gasps gave way to steadier, deeper breaths. In a few minutes, he had calmed down enough to lift his head slightly, still facing down. But he lowered his knees into a criss-crossed position, resting his arms down. His face burned red in shame, and he waited another minute before he sighed and finally gestured, "I was thirsty. I was just reaching for a glass. I knocked over the salt. I didn't know what it was until I tried to pick it up. I touched the salt itself, and I panicked..."

He didn't seem to know what else happened, so Lyon didn't pry. "It's okay. You're fine now. I'll clean it up. Why don't you sit in the living room, and when I'm done, we can get ready to go to the guild."

He had a look of melancholy when he simply gestured, "I'm NOT fine."

Lyon paused, thinking about what to say next. He really wasn't fine right now, so there was no point in patronizing him. "No, I guess not. You know better than anyone how you feel, so I won't try to convince you otherwise. It's okay to be upset. But it will get better. I think you believe that. If you don't want to go to the guild, that's okay. We can stay here, or go somewhere else if you prefer. Whatever you need, I'll help in any way I can."

Giving him all the time he needed to think it over, he was rewarded when Gray held up his hand. Lyon rose to his feet, and gently helped Gray up as well, surreptitiously checking his dressings for signs of blood, proof of a torn graft. Thankfully, Gray's tumble didn't seem to do any real harm. He guided him to the armchair and sat him down, leaving him with a prepackaged muffin to eat so he could take his medicine afterwards. After quickly cleaning up the mess, he returned with a glass of water and his next dose of pain meds.

Grateful for both, he didn't fail to perform his new habit of dipping a fingertip in the glass, swirling it around as he finally stopped trembling. That was interesting, but Lyon wouldn't bother him about it. What they all thought was just a weird habit he'd picked up out of boredom seemed to serve a purpose of calming him down. He'd have to remember that. Gray then downed the whole thing as Lyon went to change, bringing out a set of clothes for him as well.

Gray opted to go to the guild after all. If he didn't show up, his friends would just look for him here, and right now, he had a very pressing need to be out of that house for a while.

The walk to the guild was leisurely, and Gray once again took a small joy in listening to the rustle of the leaves. He knew they neared the guild by the smell of Mira's cooking. It was unmistakably her unique blend of spices and herbs that made her food call to him like no other. He had it down to a science, his ability to tell the time of day by the atmosphere surrounding the guild. Morning was relatively quiet, and smells of various breakfast offerings wafted through the air. Around noon, the noise level rose, and a few friendly fights would break out. By dinner time, the guild was often in an uproar, with Natsu usually center stage of the nightly, guild-wide brawls.

"Hey, Gray! It's so great to see ya!"

"Gray-ni! Welcome back!"

Macao and Romeo were on their way out on a father-son bonding mission. It was great timing that they got to cross paths before they left.

"Macao, Romeo, thank you. It's good to be back."

"Huh? What's up with your hands? And why is Lyon-san doing all the talking?"

Macao lightly whacked his boy upside the head, saying quietly, "Romeo, we talked about that..."

While they were saying all of that, Gray turned his attention to Lyon, raising a brow as he said, "That's not what I called them."

Lyon spoke through the side of his mouth, stifling a chuckle. "I know, but I'm not translating that. Just let it go," he said quietly.

Gray smirked.

Neither pair heard the other's conversations.

"Well, I really wish we had time to chat, but we're gonna miss our train if we don't hurry. Let's meet up sometime when we return."

"Yeah, totally! Bye, Gray-ni!"

After they left, Lyon couldn't hold it in any longer. He laughed as he asked, "Why in the world did you call them 'Stashe-Face' and 'Willow'?"

"I think 'Stashe-Face' is obvious. That fat caterpillar on his lip needs to die."

"And Willow?"

"He makes little balls of flame. He's a will o' wisp."

"How clever. Judging by their reactions, they don't know, do they?"

He just smirked again and nodded his head towards the guild.

They were met at the door by Natsu, who had smelled them from a block away.

"About time. C'mon, we're at our usual table. Hey everyone! Look who's here!"

Due to Master's warnings last night, the raucous greetings that he'd been dreading never came, as well-wishers showed great restraint in welcoming him home. They didn't approach him directly, but waited as he passed, offering kind words and "welcome backs" as he walked, or stayed in their seats as they shouted greetings from afar. A smile began to grow upon his face as he took it all in. The sense of apprehension he hadn't realized he held was fading with each step, to be completely gone when they reached Team Natsu's table. Seated there were his team, along with Loke and Cana, who both greeted him so he knew they were there.

"Have a seat. Mira made pancakes!" Erza gushed, already on a third stack herself.

The team settled at their table, passing syrup and other toppings around. Lyon deftly swiped the salt shaker and left it at a nearby table, shaking his head at the questioning glances. Understanding arose, and they each nodded back.

The excitement died down a little, and the usual sounds of a typical busy morning at the guild resumed. Gray felt a little embarrassed, but also fond, when Cana told him how everyone cleaned house the other day, just for him.

As Gray was taking a sip of his juice, he heard a cry of "Asuka, wait!" before feeling all 40 pounds of little-cow-girl crashing into his side. The wind was knocked out of him as he instinctively wrapped an arm around the tiny human constrictor, but to Team Natsu's amazement, he just breathed out a chuckle as he hugged her back.

Bisca and Alzack caught up with their daughter, mortified at what she'd done, but Gray just waved their concerns away. She was saying all sorts of things about missing him, and how glad she was that 'her' Gray-ni was finally back. She finally let go, looking up to see his bandage-covered eyes for the first time. She froze mid sentence, but started right back up again, asking curiously, "Mommy and Daddy told me that you got hurt. Is that why you were gone so long? Because you couldn't see how to get back?"

Gray was impressed by her ease of accepting his appearance. He heard no fear or worry in her voice, just curiosity.

"That's exactly what happened. It's a good thing I got your drawings to remind me where I belong."

"How come Lyon-san is saying your words? My drawings? You got them! Which one was your favorite? I have more! How come your hands were dancing? Ah! Mommy told me that you lost your voice. That happened to me once. Remember? When I got a cold last year, and you came to visit, and made popsicles with my juice, and made me feel better! Is that how you talk now? I think that's cool. Can you teach me? I wanna learn to talk with my hands!"

Why couldn't the adults be this brave around him? She's the first one to not treat him like a delicate piece of glass.

Before her parents could tell Asuka to please stop bothering Gray, he gestured, smiling, "If your parents don't mind you hanging with me once in a while, I'd be happy to teach you."

Both Bisca and Alzack were relieved that Asuka's little stunt proved to be harmless, and in fact had brought a smile to Gray's face.

"Thank you so much, Gray. You really don't have to, though. You're still recovering, and Asuka can be a real handful," Bisca said, not wanting to overwhelm him.

"I want to. It'll give me something to do. Believe me, you'd be doing me a favor. Consider it my thanks for helping Happy care for my fish. Besides, we have a lot of time to make up for, don't we, Sprite?"

Lyon had to admit, that nickname deserved recognition.

So the morning was spent teaching Asuka a few easy words, like "mom" , "dad", and "pony", until the family had to leave for the day.

They spent the rest of the morning hanging around the guild, a rarity for their wanderlust-filled team. It was before the lunch crowd usually showed when they were visited by Levy and Freed.

"Levy! Freed! Come sit with us! Have you found anything? Do you have any news?" wondered Lucy.

"Welcome back, Gray. I am pleased to see you're on the road to recovery. I'm afraid we can't stay for long. We merely came to offer our humble apologies for our continued failures in releasing you from those insidious bindings. The method in which they were inscribed has posed a difficult challenge. Even when we can finally translate the texts, it will require rather invasive methods to rewrite them in such a way as to render them void. Simply cutting them away would be most hazardous to your health, due to the depths in which they seep into your flesh."

Freed didn't notice how pale Gray was becoming at the possibility of removing his flesh, but Levy stepped in to steer the conversation towards something less morbid.

"But rest assured, we have some of the best resources available, and we'll work tirelessly until we find a nicer way to remove those seals."

"Oh, absolutely," Freed said, finally catching on, "We shall work ever diligently until the very end."

Lucy wondered if working with the powerhouses of Laxus and his crew may have degraded his ability to relate to ordinary mortals.

Gray shook his head at the ghastly image trying to take hold of his thoughts, thankful that Freed's usual verbiage made it easy to not follow along. He thanked them for their hard work, sending them on their way, and tried not to think about undergoing another flaying in this lifetime. He felt a headache coming on.

Mira arrived to take lunch orders, but stayed a bit longer to ask Gray about whether he'd like to receive a new guild mark now, and where he'd like to bear it.

A look of unease came over him, and he suddenly felt a sense of conflicted longing. He tried really hard to still his hands, keeping them fisted in his lap, but wanting to reach up to his nonexistent mark to find no sign of damage, to tell Mira that her inquiry was silly and unnecessary. For some reason, the idea of simply replacing his mark, of putting it somewhere else, left ashes in his mouth. That mark represented his pride as a Fairy Tail Wizard. It felt wrong to think it could be replaced as easily as his old furniture had been.

Mira seemed to sense his conflict, and quietly, calmly said, "It's okay. I understand. I'm sorry if I caused you any grief. But you will always be a member of Fairy Tail. You don't need an outward sign to prove that. Whenever you're ready, it's yours."

He just nodded, relieved that he didn't need to explain his reluctance. He didn't want his friends thinking he didn't even want the mark. He really did. Just not yet.

Lunch came and went, which was followed by the next round of meds. Everyone was polite in not drawing attention to them, as Gray was probably still sensitive about needing them. Wendy brought up some small talk about the new things she's been learning with Porlyusica, while Happy was rummaging around his bag for a fish he was sure was in there. It was all pretty typical, everyday guild happenings.

As such, Natsu was getting bored.

He was antsy from sitting around all day, so he tried to coax Lyon outside for a friendly spar. Everyone gave him dubious looks, even Gray, which was kind of impressive. But he was adamant that it was just a spar.

"Do you always issue random sparring challenges like this?" he asked, only to be quickly answered by a round of simultaneous "yeses" from around the guild. "I assume anything goes?"

"If you think you can bring it," Natsu crowed back.

Word spread around the guild about the potential beat down that was about to take place. It wasn't everyday that Natsu got to face off against an Ice Wizard from another guild. Fairy Tail's pride was at stake. As bets exchanged hands, Cana and Loke acted as Gray's guides, leading him to the site of the match. Erza followed along, and would do her best to describe what she saw, while Loke would act as interpreter if needed.

The dueling wizard's squared off in an open field behind the guild hall, with Master Makarov presiding. "Both of you keep it clean. All magic is allowed except for any spell that could seriously endanger life and limb. And for your own sakes, you'd better leave the guild hall alone. Winner will be called when the first mage causes the other's back to touch the ground. Are you ready? Begin!"

Natsu shot out towards Lyon the instant he heard Master say "be—", aiming a flaming punch right towards his face. Lyon didn't bother evading, choosing rather to create a great ice ape to meet the punch while Natsu was still mid swing. The early impact decreased Natsu's momentum, and threw him off balance, but he righted himself and tried to melt the ape with a wing attack. This back and forth went on for a few minutes, both opponents trying to gauge each other's fighting styles.

Erza did her best to give a play-by-play of the action, but she oftentimes got too caught up to relay what she was seeing. Gray had little trouble imagining the action, however, as both fighters called out their attacks as they went. Standing at the sidelines allowed him to consider something he'd never really thought of before. It's kind of silly announcing one's attacks right before they came. About six times out of ten, Gray's been able to predict what each opponent's next move would be. A small majority, but still a majority. Still, he probably wouldn't stop calling out his own attacks anytime soon.

A quick close range bout ended with a few ice spiders crawling down the back of Natsu's vest. Taking a breather while Natsu frantically tried to get the ice off his back, Lyon considered his next move. Soon came the emergence of a pack of ice tigers, each taking turns trying to pin Natsu to the ground. Natsu wasted no time in breaking or melting each creation, but Lyon would just freeze them back up again. Natsu, growing bored with the stalemate, used his fire dragon's flaming elbow to launch himself into the air, using ballistics to come down like a missile towards Lyon, his feet ignited to increase the damage potential.

Lyon created a large ice shield, which shattered on impact, throwing him across the field near where Gray and others were spectating. As he rolled with the impact, he managed to land without his back to the ground, so he was still in the fight.

Still, that was close. Gray was on the fence in regards to whom he should support. On the one hand, this whole fight came to represent a contest between Fairy Tail and Lamia Scale in everyone's eyes, so of course he'd want Natsu to win. On the other hand, this was Natsu, and his own competitive feelings towards his rival would likely never go away.

His conflict was resolved quickly when he heard Natsu seal his fate with his boasts of, "How did you like that, Blizzard Face! Fire beats ice every time!"

Oh no he didn't. No one insulted his teacher's legacy without consequence. Grabbing Loke's shoulder, he waited until he knew he was looking at him and mouthed, "I need Lyon's attention." Raising an eyebrow but saying, "okay," Loke called out, whistled, and waved at Lyon, until he finally looked back at their group. Loke pointed at Gray, while telling him the show was his. Lyon looked to Gray, and saw he was gesturing. A smile broke out as he nodded, which Loke relayed to Gray: "message received."

"Hey! What are you doing? No helping from the sidelines, Snowflake! What the hell are you two talking about?" Natsu shouted. Whatever it was, Natsu would be ready. Trying to circumvent the next attack, he ran forward, ready to take Lyon head on. Lyon brought his hands together, and Natsu readied another flaming fist, about to punch through the next creation, when he stopped short.

"Happy?!"

Flying before him was an perfect rendition of Happy in ice. Natsu was annoyed. "Hey! No fair! I can't hit Happy!"

"But I'm right over here! C'mon Natsu! Are you in it to win it or not?" Happy shouted.

Shaking his head, Natsu gave a big smile, rearing back his fist. "You think you can psych me out? Think again, Other-Ice Block!" Before he could swing his fist, Ice-Happy sprung forth, grabbing Natsu from behind and taking off into the sky. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! You think I—"

Suddenly, Natsu was overcome by his worse nemesis.

"HE'S MOTION SICK?!" shouted quite a few guild members.

"But that doesn't make sense, does it? That Happy's practically you!" exclaimed Lucy to the real Happy.

From the other side if the field, Cana wondered the same thing.

"That's because it's an Ice Happy. It's not a real living thing, no matter how Natsu tries to imagine it so. It's practically a vehicle." Gray said.

Loke couldn't hide his amusement when he said, "Been saving that one, have you?"

"Been fighting the moron since we were kids. I know his weaknesses inside and out."

After Lyon thought he'd had enough, he sent his Ice Happy into a fast dive, hoping to force Natsu onto his back when they landed. The impact caused a cloud of dust to rise, and everyone waited with baited breath to see what happened. When the dust cleared, what they saw was a pissed off Natsu, bent over backwards, stubbornly holding himself off the ground with his hands and feet. He flipped back into a standing position, and readied his next attack.

"That does it, Ice Prick. I'm gonna end this!"

"So be it. One more attack. Make it count!"

Natsu started gathering air into his lungs. Everyone, including Lyon, knew what he was planning.

'If he wants to end this with dragon slayer magic...' he thought.

Gathering his magic, Lyon created a large, powerful, and majestic Ice Dragon. It towered over the crowd, its shadow darkening the whole area. Natsu saw it as a direct challenge to his skills as a dragon slayer.

Lucy had a bad feeling about this. Looking past the duelists, she saw in Natsu's line of fire reasons for her concern. Before she could warn Natsu to rein in his powers, he released his fire dragon's roar at full blast.

Erza saw what was coming before he let loose, and shouted her own warning before requiping into her Adamantine Armor. She yelled at Loke to bring Gray to safety behind her shield, while others around them either scattered away or also sought shelter behind her. Loke had Gray and Cana duck down as he got in front of them, shielding them with his own body as well. Gray had no idea what was going on, as everyone had been cheering so loudly, then yelling in fright, that he couldn't hear either of the two fighters shout their attacks. He started to feel anxiety grow as he tried to use his other senses to figure out what was going on.

Then the heat struck, and he lost all sense of reality.

The flames hit Erza's shield, dispersing and passing the barrier to form a wall of fire and heat around those trapped behind. Though no flame touched him, Gray was overwhelmed by the sensation of the intense heat. It was stifling. The noise of the flames all around him overruled all other sounds. The odors of heated metal, burnt earth, and singed hair froze him. He couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't breathe.

He was back in the kiln.

Loke knew something was wrong when he heard and felt Gray's harsh, hissing screams. He and Cana were both struggling to keep Gray still, until he suddenly stopped all movement, collapsing into a heap on the ground beneath them.

The fire soon came to an end, and Erza released her shield, changing back to her regular armor. "Natsu, you fool! Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?!"

"Gray! C'mon, wake up!"

Loke's shout drew everyone's attention, and they all moved in sequence, most scurrying away to make room as Team Natsu gathered with Lyon and Master around Gray. Cana was supporting him as Loke gently shook his shoulder and tapped his face, unable to rouse him.

"I think he couldn't handle the flames. He's drifting!" Cana said.

Natsu's stomach dropped. He couldn't believe he'd used full flames in that attack. What the hell was he thinking?!

"Take him to the infirmary. Wendy, go with him. Also, someone fetch Porlyusica!" shouted Master.

Loke gathered Gray in his arms and rushed towards the guild, followed by Lyon and the rest of the team. Except for Natsu, who stood, rooted to the spot, still staring at the space where Gray had laid. Master waited patiently while he gathered himself together. He trembled and gripped his fists, and didn't fight the tears as they fell. He finally looked at Master with so much sorrow in his eyes. He was devastated.

"Ji-chan...I...I..." He couldn't find the words.

"I know. No one meant for this to happen. I also should have stepped in before it got so far. But I felt that everyone needed this. It's been a while since we've had so much excitement in the guild. It's a shame to end it on such a bad note. Let us go inside and wait for Gray to wake up. This isn't the first time something like this has happened. Try to take heart, Natsu. Though the circumstances are upsetting, Porlyusica believes he's in a safe place when he drifts. He's going to be okay."

"Yeah? Then what happens if he decides to stay in his safe place?"

...

"Let's hope it never comes to that."

Author-Sensei is kinda mean, adding on more angst for both Gray and Natsu. Not sorry. Sure wish we could add more than two genre categories.

Next Chapter: Orientation and Mobility: the first step to independence. Or: a small window into the world of the visually impaired.