"Come on, this is your party, you have to do something for it. I've called the caterers, got the decorations and hired the Ice Sculptors. The least you can do is help me decorate your house for it this Friday! Which is only two days away!"

Lucy complained, placing her hands firmly on her hips as she glared halfheartedly at the pinkette, who was busily beating a punching bag.

"But I'm not as good at that as you are, Luce. You have a special touch and manage to make everything pretty."

A light bush spread on the blonde's cheeks and she smiled, flipping her hair behind her back,

"Well, you're not wrong... I just like to make sure everything looks perfect and, not to blow my own horn, but I do throw the best parties around-..."

"Great, thanks! I knew I can count on you, Lucy!"

"W-wait! I don't mean that-..."

She was cut off once more by the gym intercom crackling to life, a moment of silence passing before a low, girlish voice, no doubt Mirajane's, filled the building, causing all sound to cease,

"Would Laxus Dreyar, Gajeel Redfox, and Natsu Dragneel report to the Master's office, please? Thank you."

With a final hum the sweet voice disappeared and the speakers once again went silent, allowing the usual chatter of the Fairy Tail gym to return to its thunder like volume. However now the conversations were more hushed and questioning, no doubt full of people wondering just what that was all about.

"Well, looks like I've been summoned, Luce." Natsu paused, silently wondering what he was being called about, "I'll be back later, alright?"

The brown eyed girl sighed in frustration but nodded all the same,

"Fine, but this isn't over, Natsu, got it?"

He flashed her one of his trademark smiles, causing her thin lipped frown to lift upwards slightly. She never could manage to stay frustrated at the idiot for long, no matter how hard she tried.

Giving his friend one last wave, the pinkette slipped down the hallway leading to the Gym Master's office, his head held high. Judging by the people mentioned in the announcement, the pinkette figured the sudden meeting was no doubt pertaining to the Grand Fighting games, which was coming up this Friday.

It was for that reason that the world renowned Salamander was even holding a party that Friday night in the first place. It was a gathering for all the gyms entering the competition, serving as a sort of welcome party, considering several of the teams were from all over Fiore. The master had brought up the idea and the Fire Dragon Slayer had eagerly agreed to it, insisting that it was a better idea to hold it in his large house than the rather small gym.

Besides, that way he could party all night long and not have to worry about causing property damage that would get him in trouble with anyone else. It was perfect, or at the very least that was what he was convinced of.

Taking his first left, it didn't take the pinkette long until he was walking through his grandfather's office door, the smug grin on his face swiftly disappearing as the sound of shouting yanked him from his carefree thoughts,

"Come on old man, that was years ago!" The voice that was distinctly Laxus growled, his teeth clenched together as he glared at the older male, who merely looked back at him with an annoyed expression, "Get over it! Gray's gone anyway!"

Natsu immediately stiffened at the last part and froze in the doorway.

"Be that as it may I simply cannot condone what you three boys did. I only wish this had been brought to light earlier, but the fact of the matter is it did not, so now I must deal with it accordingly."

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Gajeel scoffed, his hands clenching the chair he was sitting in harshly as he too glared at his grandfather. It appeared as though the fire dragon slayer was the last of the three to arrive, leaving him completely bewildered as to what was angering his cousins to such an extent.

"You can't do that!"

"As the Master of Fairy Tail I can and will do what I deem is appropriate." Makarov replied, his voice low in warning, "You two should just be thankful I am not cutting you boys from the competition entirely."

"You're insane if you think this pathetic gym can win without us." The blonde haired male growled, slamming his hands down on the desk, causing several pencils and papers to shake, threatening to fall from the table, "This gym is filled with nothing but weaklings."

"You shouldn't speak of your comrades so poorly, Laxus. That is no way for a future master to behave."

"What's going on here…?"

Immediately three sets of eyes darted to the pinkette, who apparently had remained unnoticed in the doorway until he finally spoke up, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"You…" The so called lightning slayer growled, turning to look at his younger cousin, "You told him, didn't you?"

Natsu looked from his grandpa, to Gajeel and finally to the blonde, who looked about ready to kill someone,

"What?"

"Close the door, Natsu." The master commanded, gesturing for the boy to come in all the way.

Albeit hesitantly, the fire slayer nodded and entered the room, slowly closing the door behind him.

"You told him about what we did seven years ago?" Laxus repeated, this time helping Natsu understand just what on earth he was going on about, "What the hell?!"

Immediately emerald eyes narrowed as he glared right back at his cousin, unfazed in the slightest by the dangerous tone to the blonde's voice,

"Like hell I did and I should have years ago."

"Well that's fucking great, Salamander." This time it was Gajeel's turn to snarl, "Now the old man is threatening to kick us off the team for the GFG!"

"What?!"

The pink haired adult tore his gaze from his cousins to instead stare at his grandfather incredulously,

"You can't do that! I know we deserve to be punished, but-…"

"Enough."

Instantly the fire fighter swallowed his compliant as ordered and took to merely staring at the elder man in a mixture of hurt, anger and disappointment.

"Bullying a fellow member of the gym is intolerable, regardless of how long ago it occurred. I cannot allow it to go unpunished."

"But Gray is gone! He's been dead for seven years!" Laxus objected, glaring at his grandfather in disdain, "I know we were fucking idiots to bully him, but we were young and shit happens. Taking away our ability to fight in the GFG isn't going to bring him back…Besides, it's not our fault he was weak…"

The last part came out as a mere whisper, not fit for anyone's ears, however one particular male heard the curt comment all too clearly.

Beside the blonde Natsu could feel his fists clench painfully at Laxus's tone. It was utterly condescending and remorseless. He was talking about the supposed death of a past member as easily as though he were talking about sports or the weather.

"Just shut up, Laxus."

"Huh?" The blonde snickered and looked over at the pinkette from the corners of his black eyes, "What, did I say something that angered you, kid?"

His voice was dripping with sarcasm and Natsu felt his fury rise.

"Don't talk about Gray like that." He growled, "Don't you dare call him weak! He put up with your damn bullying for two years and kept it all to himself, so don't you dare blame him."

"Like you have any right to get mad at us about that. If I remember correctly, you didn't help him either, now did you?" Laxus spat right back, taking a step closer to the pink haired boy in warning, "No, you betrayed him. You know, I think what you did hurt him much more than Gajeel or I ever did-…"

"Shut it…" Natsu snapped, not wanting to hear the words that he knew were all too accurate, but the lightning fighter paid his command no heed,
"At least we never pretended to like him or faked friendship. But you," He sneered and shook his head, a frown marring his features as he stared at the shorter male in feigned disinterest, "You betrayed him. So don't start on us for what we did when you weren't any better-…"

"I said shut up!"
With a final snarl Natsu launched himself forward, slamming into the larger male before sending the latter stumbling backwards into the bookcase. Several books tumbled down from the impact, but neither paid them any mind, instead they settled on glaring at one another, pure hatred glinting in two sets of narrowed eyes.

"You are so much weaker than he was, though, Natsu." The blonde chuckled dryly, shoving his cousin away from him as he stood up once more, "You will blame everyone but yourself, won't you? Pathetic."

Growling, the infuriated pinkette made to lunge at his cousin once more, only to be yanked backwards by strong arms.

"Stop it, Salamander!" Gajeel warned, shoving Natsu away from the blonde, who crossed his arms and watched the other with a bored yet annoyed expression.

"Don't you dare compare what I did to your bullying!" Natsu roared, his arms starting to shake with the rage he was barely suppressing, "You-..!"

"Enough, children, enough!"

Turning, the feuding boys pulled their attention from one another and looked back at the master, who had risen from his chair and was now standing only feet from them, looking rather impatient,

"You are all behaving foolishly. I hold you all equally responsible for bullying, regardless of what precisely occurred." His attention turned to the younger of the males, his gaze steady as he stared into blazing emerald eyes, "You may not have bullied as excessively, but you also did nothing to stop it, therefore you are as much to blame as the actual culprits."
The pink haired boy met his relatives stare for several moments before he finally clenched his teeth and turned away, knowing that what the master said was the truth.

In all actuality, even what Laxus said was the truth in many ways. He never stood up for the raven when he was being beaten up by his cousins nor did he help his friend fight back.

Instead he was a coward and, in fear that they would turn against him, he reformed himself to match their brutal ways. When his best friend got beaten and insulted he stood in the background, very rarely saying anything unless it was feigned encouragement to his relatives.

He sickened himself every time he had to pretend to agree with the barbaric treatments, but still he held his tongue.

He was a disgrace.

Laxus was right… He was more to blame than anyone else, yet he only blamed anyone besides himself. He was the one who betrayed Gray and he alone should bear the guilt and shame of his past actions.

Without another word, Natsu whirled around and headed towards the door, his mind turning with thoughts, thoughts of which all resulted in an unbearable amount of shame to drench him like a bucket of water.

He needed to be alone.

He was about to reach out to the doorknob when the master's voice caused him to pause.

"Natsu, how is your task going?" Makarov asked, pushing off the boy's prior actions to be dealt with at a later time. Right now he had to deal with the pressing matters.

Still seething, Natsu glared at the wooden object before him,

"I haven't even seen Silver let alone talked to him since yesterday morning." He spat, his tone harvesting more acid than he had originally intended, however at the moment he couldn't quite bring himself to care.

"I see…" The old man mumbled, a low sigh sounding from him as he played with the odd hat on his head, "See to it that you take care of it as soon as possible or else I will intervene. Is that clear?"

"Crystal."

Ignoring the confused looks they were receiving from Gajeel and Laxus, the master pretended as though he did not notice the uncharacteristically sarcastic edge to the usually cipher youth's face,

"Anyway, as far as The Grand Fighting Games goes, I was considering cutting you three from it entirely, however just this morning I received Intel that Sabertooth recently decided on their team, having added two new fighters to their lineup that are new to the guild. Supposedly one of them is an old friend of the twin Dragon Slayers and therefore highly skilled. Same for the other who joined."

The white haired elder paused for a moment, his black eyes drifting from Laxus, to Gajeel, to Natsu, who was still facing the exit,

"If this information is correct than I have to have my best fighters at hand, so I will just have to come up with another punishment, which I assure you will be far worse than missing out on the competition."

A look of relief passed over The Iron and Lightening Dragon Slayer's faces, obviously grateful that they would still be allowed to enter what they had been training so endlessly for.

Natsu, on the other hand, merely nodded in silent understanding, his pink bangs shadowing his face,

"Sure, gramps… We'll beat them…"

Opening the door, the pinkette, who had taken it upon himself to decide that this conversation was through, was about to step out, however another body positioned in the door way stopped him.

"Juvia?" He asked, startled to find the dyed blue haired girl standing right outside the master's office, her body rigid and eyes brimming with tears as she seemed to stare in shock at what used to be the door,

"G-Gray-sama was being bullied by Gajeel-san, Natsu-san and Laxus-san..." She said it as more of a statement than a question as tears streamed down her face, "Gray-sama was bullied and Juvia did nothing to help him…"

Suddenly the look of astonishment and hurt that clouded the so called water fighter's face turned to one of fury as she glared at the three males,

"Juvia thinks they were the reason Gray-Sama left Juvia!"

NGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNGNG

Night had fallen on Magnolia and the usual hustle bustle of the city had dulled to serene calm; almost completely deserted as its usual inhabitants were sleeping soundly in their beds.

That is, except for one individual, who found himself far too preoccupied with his thoughts to allow sleep to overtake him.

Letting out a low sigh, Gray shifted in his bed for what he supposed was the tenth time that night, attempting and failing to find a position that was comfortable enough to lull him into a greatly appreciated unconsciousness.

Too many things whirled around in his mind, the most important of them being the Grand Fighting games, which would be taking place not tomorrow but the day after.

The tests to get in had been… interesting to say the least, however he was absolutely astounded by the members of the so called strongest gym in Fiore. They in no harvested a bond similar to the one Fairy Tail used to hold….

His thoughts paused at the last part and he had to suppress the urge to snicker.

No, he had merely misthought that last part. Fairy Tail only claimed to be a nice and family oriented gym, or as so many of them liked to call it, guild. At least at Sabertooth they were frank with one another and did not pretend to like those that they did not fancy in the least.

Rufus, Sting, Rogue, Lyon and Gray… That was the chosen team, or, at the very least that was what the secretary Yukino had told him after he had completed his tests. She was honestly the only one besides Rogue and Sting in the guild that seemed to like the new fighters at all. Especially Rufus. For some reason he seemed to already dislike them, namely Gray.

That blonde masked bastard really managed to piss the ice sculptor off. He always acted so high and mighty; like he owned the world. For one reason or another he vaguely reminded the raven of one pink haired idiot….

No! Nope! There was no way in hell he was allowing his thoughts to drift to that moron again. He didn't matter anymore. None of Fairy Tail did. He was a part of Sabertooth now and he even had the tattoo on his chest to prove it.

"You're overthinking things again, aren't you, Gray?"

Thinking his partner to be asleep, the raven glanced over at the albino in slight surprise

"You're still awake."

He said it as more of a statement than a question.

"And you didn't answer my question." Lyon replied frankly.

Sighing, the younger ice maker nodded slightly to the white haired man's former question before remembering that the other probably could not see him too well through the dark of the hotel room,

"Yeah… I guess you could say that…"

"Are you sure that you want to do this? There is still time to drop out."

Gray opened his mouth to respond, but found himself lacking any words to actually utter, for even he wasn't sure whether he really was ready to reveal himself to the past that he had spent so long trying to forget.

In all honesty it truly amazed him how much his resolve had changed since he had first arrived four days before.

Upon his original arrival he had been set that he was going to come here and complete the job he was hired for before leaving. He was going to be strictly professional and pretend as though he had never even set foot in this blasted town before.

Boy was he wrong.

Instead he was forced to recall what happened seven years ago, whether he wanted to or not.

All of those years he spent purposely attempting to forget his parents and Fairy Tail had gone to waste in a matter of days. Instead he met several of the pains of his past and no longer wanted to just leave and act as though this never happened, no, now he was dead set on revenge.

He wanted the revenge that his younger self was never able to obtain; he wanted to restore the honor and dignity that was stolen from him and he would do that by beating Fairy Tail in the GFG and thus prove to everyone who stomped on him that he was alive and better than he was before.

He wanted to prove to everyone that he wasn't just a doormat; that instead he was tough and strong.

That he was worth something.

"Yeah… As crazy as it sounds, I am. I can't go back to Isvan until I do this… But you know you still can, right, Lyon? No one's forcing you to compete too."

A soft snort sounded from the albino and the sound of a bed shifting followed before the black haired man was met with a response,

"If you're staying than so am I. Someone has to stay and make sure you don't do something stupid."

Gray mimicked the other's previous snort and rolled his eyes, although he guessed that Lyon was unable to see it,

"Yeah, yeah, whatever… Do what you want."

"I will."

Turning again, Gray positioned himself so he was facing away from the other full size bed beside his before closing his eyes, allowing the conversation to drop in favor of attempting to fall asleep once more.

Luckily, this time he managed, falling into a dream filled slumber only minutes later.

And here is a way overdue update for this story! Sorry for the delay, I've just found myself a bit preoccupied with school and sewing of the late. But anyway, here you have it! Chapter 8!

Now, for the next chapter, I have a question for you readers. Should I bring in the beginning of the Grand Fighting Games in the next chapter or wait until the chapter after that? I feel as though if I keep stalling it will drag on, yet if I get to the GFG it will go too fast? What do you all think? Tell me what you would like to see~

Thanks for reading and see you next time!