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Half the Story

When Lyon drops by Fairy Tail, he walks into a party in full swing. A party for Gray, apparently. Which is funny, because he could have sworn Gray's birthday wasn't for months. Someone has been keeping secrets.

Lyon wasn't going to see Gray. He certainly wasn't going to be any kind of emotional support to the little punk. People had cats and stuff for that.

Whether or not everyone believed him was an entirely different story. He wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea, so he'd need an excuse to forestall any nosy questions and smug, knowing looks. Juvia, of course. The girl was gorgeous, and he couldn't help but have a bit of a crush. If Gray wasn't going to go for it, why shouldn't he?

Still, he went by Gray's apartment first. The kid spent too much time sulking, so he might be lurking around. Lyon could always say he had dropped by to see if Gray could point him in Juvia's direction, if things took a turn for the worse.

There was no answer at the door and the windows were dark, so he headed for the Fairy Tail guild hall instead. This was even more dangerous terrain since Fairy Tail mages were unpredictable at best and Gray's own behavior might be made more erratic by the presence of his friends, but maybe it was a good sign. Better than finding Gray holed up in bed at two in the afternoon, anyway.

Lyon didn't allow himself any time to linger outside the hall and gather his nerve. He'd already thought this through beforehand, and there was no point psyching himself out now. By this point, he was older and wiser and could handle it without balking.

Pushing open the doors to the guild, he strode inside with a confidence that soon turned to confusion. A pure wave of sound crashed into him, solid and thick as a brick wall, as soon as the door was no longer shielding him from the brunt of it. It was a sea of shouting, laughing, loud voices, and louder music. Of course he had been able to hear a muted version of the cacophony even with the door shut—and, as a matter of fact, from halfway down the street—but Fairy Tail was known for being a noisy bunch and he hadn't thought much of it.

But this was a full-blown party. Streamers webbed the hall, balloons on strings clustered in bunches at the ends of tables in anticipation of joining their freed comrades bobbing up against the rafters, a mess of brightly colored confetti was sprinkled liberally atop every flat surface and the floor and people's hair, and a veritable mountain of food surrounded a humongous cake iced blue. Lyon hesitated in the doorway and watched the rowdy mages heap food on their plates and argue at the top of their lungs to be heard over all the other shouting and deafening music.

Gray wouldn't be here. Not that he didn't love a good party from time to time, but this? Now? Surely not. But if he wasn't at his apartment and wasn't here, then he could be anywhere. He could have taken a job in any part of the country or jetted off on an impromptu vacation.

Maybe someone here would know, but Lyon wasn't sure he wanted to go around asking questions. Gray wouldn't appreciate him poking around if he was off sulking on his own. The kid was fine, anyway.

He would have slunk back out unnoticed, except that, well, he was noticed.

"Hey, Lyon!" Lucy said, waving at him and bouncing over with Natsu and Happy at her heels. "Glad you could make it. Gray's over at the bar with Cana."

"I'm not here to…" He shook his head and dropped it. "What in the world is going on here?"

"It's the ice princess's party." Natsu rolled his eyes. "Duh."

"You made it in time for cake!" Happy added.

Lyon felt his whole face wrinkle up as he looked around at the brightly colored decorations and partying mages. "Party for what?"

They all stared at him as if he'd lost his mind.

"For his birthday…" Lucy said.

Lyon shook his head in contempt. For all the power these people possessed, they weren't exactly the brightest. How could you know someone for so long and get something so fundamental so wrong?

"His birthday isn't for months," he said. He crossed his arms over his chest and raked another scornful look across the balloons and streamers as he ran the numbers in his head. "Nearly three more months."

Rather than looking cowed or embarrassed or horrified by their oversight, the Fairy Tail mages gave him even stranger looks.

"No, it's today," Happy said. "We celebrate every year."

"You've been celebrating on the wrong day for years? And he never corrected you?"

"Hey," Natsu interrupted with a scowl. "It's definitely today."

"It is not. You've still got almost three months. Honestly. I knew him way before you did, and I celebrated his birthday way back then, once. I know what day it is."

"Maybe you're forgetting things in your old age," Natsu said snidely.

Lyon glared. "Why, you–"

"Anyway, you might've known him first, but we've still known him longer. You've only been back in his life recently—we've been here for ages. I think we know better."

"And I think you're wrong."

"And I know you're wrong."

"Boys, calm down," Lucy said with a sigh. "Can't we just enjoy the party?"

"Not when this guy doesn't even think there should be a party," Natsu grumbled.

"I'm telling you, you're almost three months early," Lyon retorted. "I can't believe Gray puts up with this."

In all honesty, it didn't make any sense at all. Misremembering a birthday one year was one thing, but for dozens of years? No way would Gray stand for that. He would jump on the chance to mercilessly mock anyone who dared make such a mistake. Unless this was some elaborate joke he was dragging out for years before springing the great reveal? That didn't seem like Gray's M.O., though. And why now?

"Here, we'll prove it to you," Natsu said.

He grabbed Lyon's arm—ignoring his spluttering—and began towing him across the guild, weaving between groups of excitable and/or drunk mages.

"Oh, Natsu," Lucy sighed as she drifted after them. "Can't you just leave it alone?"

"Of course not! For one, he's calling us liars."

"Not exactly," Lyon said. "Just stupid."

"And two, he's wrong."

"Should be fun!" Happy chirped.

Gray was sitting at the bar with a mostly full beer in front of him, laughing at something his significantly drunker companion was saying. Cana was weaving and wobbly even while sitting on her stool, and Lyon had the feeling that the nearly empty tankard in her hand was not her first. Erza hovered behind them, wringing her hands and saying something about 'cake time'.

"Hey, ice princess!" Natsu barked.

By this point, Lyon wasn't worried about being caught out coming to see Gray. Now that the shock was wearing off, he was getting angry. This whole thing was ridiculous. Fairy Tail was infamously crazy, but this really took the cake. If they had just been messing with him or Gray—or Gray had been messing with them—that would be one thing. Not a great thing, but still.

But to do it now?

No, something was more wrong than a dumb prank. Something was bordering on cruel.

Gray swiveled around on his stool. "Hey–" He caught sight of Lyon and blinked three times in quick succession, like he was trying to blink a surprising—unwanted?—sight away or remember something. "Lyon?"

Lyon wrested his arm out of Natsu's grasp and shot him a nasty look. "Why does everyone think your birthday is today?"

Gray opened his mouth, closed it again. He closed his eyes and rubbed at his forehead.

"'Cause it is," Cana slurred. She thrust her tankard in his general direction. "You want a beer? Mira's around here somewhere."

"You didn't know?" Erza asked. She winced. "Oh, I should have thought to invite you. I'm sorry. That was an oversight on my part."

Lyon shook his head in disbelief. "His birthday isn't for months."

Cana snorted. "You already drunk? Maybe you don't need a beer after all."

He glared at her. "Gray, what the hell is going on?"

"Yeah, tell him that he's wrong," Natsu added. Lyon glared at him too.

"I wasn't expecting you to come," Gray groaned into his fingers.

Lyon switched his glare yet again. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Look…"

"We celebrated your birthday with Ur. It's almost three months from now."

"Actually…"

"What do you mean, actually?"

"It's actually his birthday," Natsu interrupted. Gray threw him a despairing look.

"Really?" Lyon demanded. "You lied to us?"

Gray made a grab for his beer. "Well, yes… It's today, but–"

"What do you mean, it's today?"

Cana scratched her head. "If you didn't know it was his birthday, then why did you come?"

"Can we talk outside?" Gray asked tightly. His gaze jumped between Lyon and his guildmates, like he was expecting someone to swing a fist at him but wasn't sure who.

Lyon clenched his hands into fists at his sides and ignored him. "Because this is the anniversary of when his parents died." He paused and backtracked a little to hedge his bets. He had worked the math back from Ur's death, not from actually remembering the exact date. "Or around this time, anyway. I can't say I remember if it's exactly today, but somewhere close."

Everyone stared at him.

Lucy laughed nervously, the sound high-pitched and slightly strangled. "What do you mean?"

They all looked at Gray, who was suddenly looking very pale.

"I'm not drunk enough for this conversation," he mumbled, knocking back his beer and slamming the tankard back on the bar.

"Is that true?" Erza asked. She and the others were starting to look something like how Lyon imagined he had looked when they told him it was Gray's birthday. "Is it really…?"

Gray huffed out a breath and didn't meet anyone's eyes. "It was two days ago," he said shortly. "Lyon, can we talk outside?"

He slid off the stool and slipped past Lyon without looking at anyone and headed for the door.

"Whoa, where do you think you're going?" Natsu called after him. "You owe us–"

"We'll talk later. Enjoy the party, 'kay? We can eat cake when I get back."

Everyone in earshot looked as shell-shocked as Lyon felt, but he left them to their wide-eyed whispering and followed Gray. The messy situation was starting to resolve itself slowly. It seemed like there were two very different anniversaries going on here, and each group only had half the story.

"Why did you–?" he started, but Gray cut him off with a curt flap of his hand and didn't look back.

"Outside."

Lyon cast one last look back at Natsu and the others before following Gray outside. Gray sat down on one of the wide stone steps leading up to the entrance.

Lyon sat down beside him. "Why did you lie to me—us—about your birthday?"

Gray shrugged and watched Magnolia's oblivious residents scuttle up and down the street. "Well, I hardly felt like celebrating right after my parents died, did I? And I hardly knew you, anyway. So I didn't bring it up. And when you and Ur asked later, I didn't want to explain that you'd already missed it or see you make the connection to… I didn't want your pity. So I made up a date that hadn't passed yet and let you have it. I don't even remember what day I said, honestly."

"And you really didn't think it might come back to bite you one day?"

"No? I didn't really think about it. Ur died and you left, so I didn't think it mattered anymore. You've never shown any interest in dropping by this time of year or even celebrating my birthday since then, so how was I supposed to know? If you'd showed up two days ago, or even a day in either direction, I probably could have finessed it without anyone being the wiser. You just have bad timing."

Lyon shook his head. "Maybe we don't want you to finesse it. Maybe we just want you to be honest."

Gray's eyes were world-weary and jaded. "Yes, well, now everyone is freaking out and the party is ruined because Fairy Tail thinks I'm super depressed or something and you're giving me a weird look."

Lyon wasn't sure what kind of 'weird look' he was wearing, but he tried to school his features back into a neutral expression. Getting worked up would just make Gray shut down. Maybe Lyon couldn't have managed to maintain such collected reason in the past, but he was seven years older and wiser than he'd been before. A benefit Gray didn't have.

In truth, he was horrified. Losing your parents was awful enough, but losing them right before the day you were supposed to celebrate your life with your family and friends? How difficult did it make Gray's birthdays, going forward? And no one had even known.

Speaking of bad timing… What awful luck to tie two such disparate events together.

"Are you not?" Lyon asked evenly. "Super depressed or something?"

Gray's gaze darted his way and then slid back to the street. "I'm fine."

Lyon let it go, for now. "So why didn't you lie to Fairy Tail about your birthday too? Seems like it would've saved you some trouble."

"Well, I didn't know that at the time. They didn't know about Deliora, so it didn't matter so much. And I figured I'd either be gone by the time my birthday rolled around or forget what fake date I made up if I got stuck there longer. It seemed easier to go with the truth so that I could at least keep my story straight." He paused and added, a little ruefully, "Also, they kind of put me on the spot and I automatically blurted out the real one."

"I'd imagine it might be difficult to celebrate sometimes."

Gray didn't say anything for so long that Lyon figured he'd pushed just a little too far. It didn't take much to make Gray close himself off, not where emotions were concerned.

"Sometimes," Gray said finally. He propped his elbows on his knees, steepled his hands, and rested his chin on his clasped hands as watched the world flow past in front of them. "Sometimes I don't feel like celebrating. But it was a long time ago, and I've learned to…compartmentalize, sometimes. Besides, the guild likes to party and have a good time, and it cheers me up sometimes. It's good to still have someone to celebrate with."

Lyon eyed Gray sidelong, wondering exactly how much alcohol he'd consumed to loosen his tongue to this degree.

"I guess if–"

"Why are you really here, Lyon? It's not like you've bothered before."

Lyon opened his mouth, but closed it around the words he wanted to say. He could have said that he had lost Gray for seven years after the Tenrou incident and thought he was dead. He could have said that the experience had given him an appreciation of what the loss of a family could really do to you, or that it reminded him not to take Gray for granted. He could have said that he didn't want to lose Gray again, or that he wanted to do a better job of watching out for him this time around.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay," he said instead.

He could have said those things, but they would have made Gray shut down for sure. He'd had seven extra years to mature and grow out of some of the emotional denial of his youth, but Gray hadn't had that opportunity. Gray wasn't ready to face his emotions head on or have an open conversation about them.

Lyon couldn't blame him—he'd been the same way seven years ago—but over the years he'd come to realize that you could only take the conversation as deep as the more guarded participant allowed. It was the same concept as a team only being as strong as its weakest member. Gray still had a lot of growing to do, and Lyon couldn't force seven years of maturity on him in the space of a few minutes.

"Ah," said Gray. "Okay."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Lyon studying Gray sidelong while Gray stared steadfastly out at the street. There were a lot of things Lyon could have said, a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but he kept his mouth shut. He could wait.

"I should go calm them down," Gray said finally. "They'll get nervous if we're out here too long."

"Good idea," Lyon agreed.

Gray stood and brushed off his pants. "Do you want to come in? We're about to eat cake, if you want some."

Lyon smiled and shook his head. "No, that's okay. I'm still sure your birthday isn't for another few months. Maybe I'll send a card."

Gray snorted. "Suit yourself."

He disappeared back inside without another word, the cacophony of the party swelling and then settling back to a slightly more muffled thrum as the door opened and closed.

Lyon sat on the steps for a few minutes longer, watching all the people hurry past. It seemed that Gray still wanted to keep the different segments of his life separate, at least to an extent, and Lyon wouldn't intrude further. He'd already brought the past careening into the present. Anyway, today had given him a lot to think about, and he could use some time to process everything.

He stood and headed back to the train station. He could wait a little longer, until Gray was ready to open up. He would wait, but not forever.

And in the meantime, maybe he would send a card.

emmahoshi: Lol yeah, I would also be in it for some extra cake. Frankly, I could see Lyon and Natsu arguing over everything if they ever interacted with each other. Hope you've been well :)