They had a routine that worked okay for them. It all broke apart at the first snowstorm.

Their first two and a half weeks in the mansion were monotonous. They figured out their food system, Gray running down into the city's shops every Friday, they each independently explored the servant's quarters and sometimes ran into each other, but they otherwise never interacted. If Natsu wasn't exploring, then he was probably working out. He spent all of his time in the gym in his sector. He thoroughly ignored all of his soreness and exertion injuries that he would wake up with and simply worked out more. It was wearing on his body, sure, but his mind was being worn down much more. He had found the perfect word to explain his feelings: loneliness! A term Natsu almost never applied to himself, one that was so alien to him it took weeks for him to realize that it was what he was truly feeling. So, instead of having to face that awful, alien feeling, Natsu worked out so hard he couldn't think of anything else if he tried.

Gray had been almost exclusively reading. He had access to a giant library and all the time in the world, why not take advantage of it? Loneliness had not set in for him as it had with Natsu; Gray had always been a solitary man. He loved company but he loved getting away from company just as much. His purpose in being here which he had not been able to find a week ago was suddenly clear: it was not being alone from Natsu, it was being alone from everyone. He relished the quiet, and the freedom to do whatever he pleased.

The days had been getting colder rapidly. They knew this would happen, of course, but they were still surprised at how quickly winter arrived. Back it Fiore, it would still be a good few weeks until the cold and snow really set in. This mountain had a permanent snow cap, but the mansion was placed quite a bit below the snow line. For that reason, the first snow covered the previously manicured lawn in white. It melted later that day, but it set a precedent. It snowed again a few days later, but this did not melt. A thin, soft layer of snow remained on the ground after this point. When Natsu had gone out to explore, he left wet footprints trailing up and around the house.

The temperature dropped suddenly the next day, going from a partly cloudy 35o F (1.67o C) to a gray 15o F (-9.44o C) overnight. Natsu's wet footsteps froze, however it did not snow until that night. The snow started suddenly at 9 p.m, but it took an hour and a few inches of snow before the pair realized that they were in the middle of a snowstorm.

Gray had been watching the storm out of his kitchen window. He grew increasingly concerned about the house as the storm did nothing but get worse. They hadn't prepared the house for winter at all.

As Gray watched the snow flit by outside, he heard a soft thump emanating from the roof. He paused and listened closer, his quick regrets fading into fear as he realized this mission might be over much quicker than they had expected it to. Another thump, a little louder than the first. He rushed to the servants quarters to contact Natsu. It was time to do the mission: they needed to investigate.

He clicked the button to connect to Natsu's gym—having since learned that Natsu was almost always there—and began speaking.

"Natsu! Have you seen the storm?"

Natsu jumped. He had yet to get used to the fact that the intercom might go off at any time. "Storm? Oh, is that what I've been hearing?"

"Most likely."

"Sorry, there's no windows in the gym. What's going on?"

"Snowstorm. I'm worried about the house—we didn't prepare it or anything."

"Oh. Did something happen?"

"Not exactly… I heard a noise from the ceiling, but I am not going to wait around until the roof collapses before doing anything. Meet me in the shared room."

"Su—" The intercom clicked off. Natsu stood from his machine and swiped the sweat off with a small rag. He decided not to change out of his sweaty clothes and just started hustling towards the center room. He found Gray sitting on one of the couches, rubbing his knuckles with his other hand. Natsu knew he only did that when he was nervous. There was no reason for him to be, Natsu thought, since nothing truly bad had even happened. Whatever, he could poke around the house if it pleased Gray.

"Hey," Gray said tersely, "c'mon."

They headed out a door in the glass wall of the room, into the courtyard. The wind and aggressive specks of snow slammed into them immediately. Their respective magics made them cold-proof, but not wind-proof. It wasn't unbearable, however, so they pushed on.

"I'm worried about the roof, mostly," Gray said as they moved, "but also the sump pump, and the pipes, and…"

"Man, who cares? It'll be fine."

"I care! This is our mission and we haven't done jack shit. We should have winter-proofed the house weeks ago."

"Nothing has happened yet."

"Yet."

"Ugh!"

"If you don't wanna take this job seriously, then—"

"I do, I just—" Natsu hesitated as he realized that he had come to hate this mission and the loneliness it had caused within him. Maybe Gray's worries were coming from the place of someone who actually gave a shit. "—Well, whatever. What do you want me to do?"

Gray was shocked at how easily Natsu gave up the argument. "I want to do a round around the house to check for any obvious problems. Look at the roof! I know it's tall, but I'm sure you can hear if it's creaking or something. Then we can go through the servants quarters and check all of that. We need to come up with some protections for the house: if this is the first storm of winter then I can't imagine what kind of damage we will be dealing with a few months from now."

"Fine. Split up?"

"Yeah. Check back in the shared room when you're done."

"Got it."

They separated, each man heading around a different side of the house. Natsu did look around, but he was not paying as much attention as he could have been. He did not believe this storm would hurt the house, but he was willing to do it if it pacified Gray. One of them had to care about the mission, at least.

Gray, on the other hand, was intently watching the house for any issues; he fully expected Natsu to be doing the same. Gray found some frosting around a window—not good, likely means the window isn't sealed properly—but nothing else of note. He could not tell who's section he was walking around (it was difficult to orient the inside of the estate to the outside), so he did not know if he or Natsu would be looking at the part of the roof that he had heard the thump from.

Gray walked back to the common room to see Natsu already inside, waiting for him. He shook some of the snow off of himself before entering.

"All good?" Gray asked, unsure.

"Yeah, I didn't find anything."

"Well, alright. I still want to head down below and check everything there."

"Like what?"

"The boiler, the pipes—no, wait, I already said all this to you. Were you even listening?"

"I was!"

Gray rubbed his face in stress. "Just… c'mon."

They found the nearest hidden door into the servant's quarters and crept through the narrow hallways until coming upon something important: the sump pump. They knelt down next to the plastic-covered hole.

"It's really big," Natsu mumbled.

"There are multiple sump pumps for this house, but each one is really big and powerful just because of how much land they have to account for."

"Ah, okay. Is something wrong with it?"

Gray scoffed. "You tell me, you're looking at it!"

"Well, I wouldn't know. My house doesn't have a sump pump. I don't know how this works at all."

"What do you do when it rains?"

"I don't have a basement. I built the house when I was eleven with a lot of help from the Master and Gildarts and, uh, let's just say we did not know how to build a very good house… wait, don't you live in an apartment? You don't have control over your sump pump."

"I do live in an apartment, but that doesn't stop me from knowing about sump pumps. It's not like I've never lived in a home before."

"I've never lived in a home—well, a professionally built home—before, so you tell me if it's right or not."

Gray peeked under the plastic lid of the sump pump. He couldn't see very well, so he lifted the lid up.

"Uh oh," he said immediately.

"What?"

Gray pointed towards a ring of ice that had begun to form around the rim of the hole.

"And that's bad?" Natsu asked, leaning forward to better see the ice.

"Very! I didn't even know that was possible!"

"Why not, it's cold outside?"

"Yeah, outside! We're inside! Oh lord, this basement must not be temperature controlled…"

"It feels fine."

"To us!"

"I forgot about that."

"Listen, when the snow melts all of the water won't be able to make it through this and it's gonna flood the entire servant's quarters."

"I'll melt the ice," Natsu posited, lighting up the flames on his right hand.

"Wait!" Gray slammed his arm across Natsu's chest to hold him back. Natsu, who had been kneeling down in an unstable duck-squat, was knocked onto his ass by the movement.

"HEY!" he yelled, scrambling to his feet.

"Shut up!" Gray retaliated, also standing, "If you melt the ice you're gonna melt the pipes, too!"

"I'm not stupid! I know how to control my flames!" Natsu yelled indignantly. Why couldn't Gray see that he just wanted to help?

"You burn down entire neighborhoods!"

"Ugh! When is everyone gonna stop mentioning that?"

"Never, how the fuck do you even do that on accident?"

"Get away from me! Let me do my mission!" Natsu pushed past Gray and tried to reach down into the pit of the sump pump. Gray grabbed Natsu's scarf this time, dragging him a good few feet away from the pit. Natsu flailed on his feet, trying not to lose his balance. Before Gray could pull him fully away, Natsu got angry. He grabbed at Gray's arms and squeezed them painfully tight, obviously prepping to do something worse.

Gray, a man who was very experienced in dealing with Natsu's shit, saw the signs of a fight brewing. He let go of Natsu's scarf and stepped back.

"Stop. I don't wanna fight."

"Pussy," Natsu sneered, fixing his scarf.

"I don't want to fight you—I'm telling you that melting the ice isn't gonna solve anything. It'll freeze again within a few hours. The breaker is probably tripping or something."

"You don't know that for sure."

"You're right," Gray said, turning his back to Natsu and waving for him to follow, "I don't know that for sure. That's why I'm not going to take any drastic options—your fire—before knowing anything."

Natsu did not respond for a few moments, though he did begin shuffling behind Gray to follow him to the breaker. Finally, he mumbled, "...you're such an asshole, you know that?" Natsu meant this for a lot more than just the sump pump.

"Sure, whatever."

They found the electrical breaker and popped the little cover open. It was in the same room as the intercom that Gray had been using to remotely communicate to Natsu, as well as a few other important devices. As Gray had said, the breaker was having a minor malfunction.

Gray pointed to a thermometer and dial on one of the many control panels for the estate's air-conditioning units. "Look," he said, "the AC had been set to eighty degrees [26.67o C] for what I can only assume to be the entire basement. It's probably in the negatives outside, so the electric had to work really hard to keep it that warm and wore itself out until it eventually tripped."

Gray moved the little dial down to just forty degrees [4.44o C]. "We're not bothered by the cold, so I'll just put this a little above freezing to prevent any more ice."

Natsu watched as Gray moved to the breaker. He flipped all of the switches off—the lights turning off in the process—reset the breaker, waited about a minute, then flipped all of the switches back on. The lights flickered back to life and the AC began whirring quietly. It was such a minor thing, but Natsu could not be more jealous of Gray than in that moment. He had assessed a problem when Natsu didn't even want to search for it. He had found a solution, never once dropping his cool demeanor, all the while Natsu had tried a rash solution and even gotten angry. Gray was capable… and Natsu was not. This mission was supposed to mature Natsu. He was struck with a sudden sense of dread. This mission would not do anything for him. He would spend a year locked away in a gym, alone, being fully useless and feeling awful about it. He would come back to the guild and not a single thing would have changed. One year: entirely wasted!

Natsu retreated until his back pressed against the wall. He hadn't realized he was moving until he felt the smooth concrete against his shoulders. Gray saw Natsu through the corner of his eye, but did not say anything.

Natsu's face changed suddenly, pressing together with emotion. He was scared! Not of a horrifyingly powerful enemy or of a large beast—he was never scared of those—but of his own future. He knew he was going to feel horrible for the rest of the mission and he was afraid of having to deal with that. Gray fully turned around to look at Natsu, confused at his very sudden and uncharacteristic change.

Gray's eyes locked onto Natsu's, trying to figure out what he was doing. Natsu did not want Gray to know just how scared he was. If he found out, it would affirm in Gray's mind that Natsu really was dumb, childish, and useless.

Natsu left, running out of the room and into the maze of hallways making up the servant's quarters. Gray jumped, baffled by every new thing that Natsu did. He stood and peeked his head out of the room, looking for Natsu. He was just… gone! Gray had a bad feeling. He broke into a run, deciding to search for his mission partner.

…

Natsu had temporarily gotten lost, his emotions distracting him from proper navigation. He had to force himself to stop running, kneeling down to better catch his breath. He looked up. He tried looking around to get his bearings but found, strangely, that his vision was blurred. He touched his face gently. It was wet. He blinked hard, sending the few drops of water sitting in his eyes dripping down his cheeks. He was crying and hadn't even realized! He had mistaken his water-blurry vision for the motion blur typically expected of running and thought the burn in his throat was only due to the air pushing in and out of his lungs at an increased rate.

'Why am I crying?' Natsu thought. It was something he absolutely never did, not if he could help it. He stilled himself completely, forcing his body to close up and stop crying. When he relaxed, he still felt the telltale burn of tears in the back of his throat. So, he stilled again, not content until he was absolutely sure he would not cry.

When he could finally look around with no disturbances from his emotions, Natsu realized that he knew exactly where he was. He did not have the entire servant's quarters memorized, but he had been in it enough to know generally where he was at any point in time. He knew the closest door was straight, a left, a right, then another left. Natsu followed the path he had made in his mind and popped open the small servant's door.

He walked out, finding himself next to Gray's stairwell in the common room. That was lucky! He didn't know how he would have explained himself if he had popped out somewhere in Gray's half of the estate. He smelled the air and poked his head out, trying to make absolutely sure that Gray was nowhere near here.

It was clear. Natsu crept out from around the staircase and started booking it to his side. Gray would never dare to go into his side of the mansion, right? They had made it clear that was grounds for a fight. As long as Natsu stayed on his side of the estate, he reasoned, then he would not have to face Gray before he got his pesky feelings under firm control. Once he had done that, Natsu could turn off his brain and shadow Gray while he did most of the work. Yes, that would work!

Natsu reached his stairwell and slammed the button to make it start moving. He ran up it while it was moving, figuring that to be the fastest method. He pressed the button at the top, stopping it and hopefully hiding his presence. He dashed into the gym, slamming the door behind him, and jumping into a workbench. Sure, Gray would expect to find Natsu here. However, if Natsu simply did not make any noise when he heard the little intercom turn on, then Gray would not know for certain where he was. Natsu was absolutely certain Gray would never come in personally to check.

Natsu loaded the workout machine with weights. He grabbed a pair of handles that rested above his head. He pulled them down—connected to the weights by a tough cord—until the handle was level to his chest. He was working the muscles in his upper back and shoulders, and at first the strain grabbed his full attention. However, as he adjusted to the movement, Natsu's conscious thoughts resumed. He thought about having to be in this gym for a whole year. Previously, in spending all of his time here, he thought of it as a simple distraction until the real job started. When his apparent call to action came, Gray warning him about the storm, Natsu should have jumped on the opportunity. Instead, he was hesitant. He wanted to delay looking into whatever noise had been made in the roof. If they found nothing, then Natsu could continue with the same mentality: just waiting for the real action to start. But, if they did find something—and Natsu knew they probably would—then they would have to deal with it. And if Natsu proved to be useless yet again… then he could never think of this mission, this year, the same way anymore. He could no longer convince himself that his coming-of-age event was just around the corner. He could no longer lie in wait, he had to face the horrifying idea that really, nothing was going to change for him.

Natsu paused in the middle of a rep, then slowly released the bars. The weights slammed loudly. He sat there in silence for a moment. What was he going to do? Turn off his brain and follow Gray's lead blindly, as he thought before? No, he would not be able to do that. That was short-sighted of him. He was Natsu, after all, he couldn't plan ahead to save his life.

'What the hell am I gonna do?'

…

Gray had given up on his pursuit very quickly. He had curled around a few loops of the servant's quarters before deciding that the house mattered more. Natsu had appeared to him as being suddenly distraught. He had no idea why he would be, especially when they were actively solving problems at the time. Gray did not care to comfort Natsu—he did not think he had ever comforted someone in his life—he was just curious on what had caused such a change within Natsu. After a few minutes passed Gray lost all interest in whatever had happened. Natsu often invented unintelligibly stupid things to be make a fuss about on their missions: over-emphasizing a beast's strength in his excitement to fight it, complaining about the alleged weirdness of an enemy or even a teammate, and being convinced that he needed to fight someone alone to 'protect' everyone else. The things that Natsu did on their missions were born from his ego and his stupidity.

"Ugh!" Gray scoffed aloud. Natsu's ego! The amount of headaches Gray had endured, all caused by Natsu's complex, was incredible. He was always trying to prove his strength through idiotic stunts he somehow believed he could pull off. Just how many times had he lost a challenge against Laxus or Gildarts?

A small doubt picked at the back of Gray's mind. The annoying quirks of Natsu's personality that Gray was aware of did not apply in this situation. Natsu had been unexcited to check the house, since it did not involve any action or fight. He had also gotten mad that Gray wouldn't let him melt the pipes. Gray had expected both of these. It didn't stop him from being annoyed, but he had still expected it. Natsu getting emotional after fixing the sump pump was completely unexplainable in Gray's mind. He had never seen Natsu get emotional unless it was for someone else's sake. He had nobody else to protect in that situation, there was no longer anything for him to prove after the solution had already been found. Natsu did not get jealous unless somebody else had an interesting fight that he couldn't be present for. He was upset about something very personal, and Gray had no clue what it was.

Gray quickly checked the rest of the important hubs in the servant's quarters. He did not find anything that would not be solved by fixing the AC. So, he headed upstairs to investigate the window with a broken seal. He poked around the shared room for a moment, double checking if Natsu was there or not. He did not spend long. He looked briefly towards Natsu's side of the estate, considering searching for him there. He disregarded the thought very quickly—he couldn't go into Natsu's side. If he crossed that boundary, who knows what this mission would become? He opened the door to find the window outside. He didn't know where it was inside, but he could find it outside.

The wind hit his face hard, even worse than it had been less than an hour ago. His hair whipped backwards instantly. Gray found that he had to hold a hand over his eyes or be forced to keep them closed. The snow had built up multiple inches, so deep that he was forced to lift his entire foot up and over the snowdrift in order to take even a single step. He slugged his way through the snow until he came upon the frosted window. He tried peeking through it to see what room it was connected to, but where the window wasn't frosted, it was fogged, and Gray could not make out anything. He sighed quietly. He really didn't want to do this, just in case, but…

Gray grabbed the bottom of the window and opened it. It was tough, the ice freezing parts of the sliding mechanisms on the sides of the pane. He had to resort to hitting the window with the butt of his palm to slowly inch it upwards. The window was pretty large, all things considered. If he could get it even partially open Gray thought he could fit himself through and see it from the inside.

Once he had it wide enough, Gray hooked a leg into the window, then the rest of his body. He hit his head on the top by accident but quickly recovered, the biggest pain being that of embarrassment. He spun to look at the window at this new angle. He immediately saw the issue. A portion of the upper frame was completely at an angle and the rubber sealer was dangling. Gray supposed it could be fixed, but it might be better to replace the parts entirely. You'd think a woman this wealthy would invest more into her home! Or, well, one of her homes.

He would try to fix it first. He didn't have any tools on him, but hey, that's what his magic was for. Gray made a very small hammer out of a layered ice that could take a hit. He positioned himself carefully, then tapped the frame. It didn't budge. Gray rapped at it significantly harder. It moved an inch, bending back to its original position. He felt relieved for a moment before tapping it again and watching the piece snap off and land at his feet.

"Ah, shit!" Gray cussed. Okay, it couldn't be fixed that simply. For now, Gray moved the dangling rubber insulation into a more useful position and iced it into place. He would have to either buy new parts once the storm let up or, if he couldn't find a similar frame, glue the piece back on. He grabbed the broken section and placed it on the windowsill, then hitting the window until it shut.

Gray sighed, leaning against the wall. 'It could be worse,' he reasoned. 'It could always be worse.'

He decided to give up on the window until the storm ended. It wasn't all that dangerous, and Gray would feel more comfortable tackling it with proper tools and a full night's sleep. He looked around himself, trying to figure out where exactly in the estate he was. He barely recognized his surroundings. He was in a small coat room that appeared to be separated from a larger room using a short wall. Gray peeked around the wall and saw what small fear had begun to dawn on him: sprawled couches, cozy furniture, and a wall of alcohol. He was in Natsu's side. Specifically, the kitchen/bar on his first floor. Gray immediately felt uncomfortable. He wasn't supposed to be here.

He saw the door to the exit. He could get out of here and Natsu never needed to know he was in here. However… Gray looked back at the window. He would have to fix it eventually. The ice was positioned in such a way that even Natsu would figure out that it wasn't natural, it was magical. No matter what, Gray would have to come in here at least one more time in the future. So, considering that… Gray might as well break the news early.

He marched up the staircase. He'd go to the gym first. If Natsu wasn't there, then he'd get out while he was ahead and pretend like it never happened.

Upon getting to the second floor Gray had to hunt down the gym. He didn't know exactly which room it was, but he could find out based on context clues. He walked on, peeking his head into the few doors he passed. Finally, he found what he was looking for. Sneaking a glance through the smallest crack in the door, Gray spotted Natsu sitting at a bench; he wasn't working out, he was sitting with his eyes closed and a contemplative look on his face. That was rare!

Gray allowed the door to swing completely open. He stood in the doorway. He did not speak and he did not move. Natsu did not move, either. Was he mad? Gray was certain that Natsu had both heard and smelled him enter.

"Natsu," Gray whispered, more quietly than he had ever spoken to Natsu before. He was terrified to break the silence. This moment felt so serious.

Natsu opened his eyes and slowly turned to look at Gray. By habit, one of Gray's hands found the knuckles of the other, rhythmically fidgeting away the tension of the moment. Natsu did not react immediately. Gray was suddenly reminded of the moment he and Natsu first encountered each other in this house, in Ruth's office. At the time, Gray did not even know how to react. He had just stared at Natsu's too-familiar face, dumbfounded. Was Natsu feeling that right now? Gray's hands fidgeted faster.

"Natsu," Gray repeated, louder. He took half a step forward, fully breaking the threshold.

"Did you just want to rub it in?" Natsu said in a very serious tone.

What the hell was he talking about? Gray took another half-step forward, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. The last thing he wanted to do was goad a fight. "I'm not sure what you're talking about, Natsu," he responded levelly, "but whatever it is, no. I wanted to talk about the busted window."

"Oh, yeah? You did?"

"...Yes."

Natsu stood slowly. He strode up to Gray and looked him in his eyes. "You are an awful person."

"W-What?" Gray sputtered.

"You must think you're so smart, huh? But guess what, buddy, I don't fucking care."

Gray was taken aback. It was far from being the first time Natsu had ever randomly begun insulting him, but this felt very different. Natsu was not calling him a popsicle or a snow princess, he was getting personal. Not in a way that Gray understood, but personal nonetheless.

"Listen, man, I'm not trying to start anything—"

"Oh, of course not! You're too cool to start a fight, after all!"

"I'm just trying to be rational!"

"Because I can't be?"

"You didn't even want to help!" Gray definitely did not want to cause a fight, but once one began brewing he did not know how to stop it.

"I didn't want to help because… because…" Natsu knew why but he would be damned to admit that in front of Gray. 'I didn't want to help you because I'm insecure of my abilities and I'm terrified of being useless,' as if! "It doesn't matter why, I don't deserve this!"

Natsu pushed past Gray and pointed dramatically towards the door. "Get the fuck out!" he yelled.

Gray was primarily confused, but also mad. All he wanted to do was the mission! He was calm! Sure, he had gone into Natsu's space—that he knew. However, he had entered with that in mind: being calm, straight to the point, and entering specifically for the purpose of work. Whatever meltdown Natsu was having should not impact their mission or Gray's life.

"I'm not going to leave just because you're having a hissy fit! We have a job to do, you asshole!"

Natsu did not react well. He tackled Gray onto the floor and hit him across the face. Gray used whatever leverage he could find to fit his knee between Natsu's legs and slam up into his groin. Natsu yelled and rolled off of Gray.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he grunted, his legs squeezed together and wincing in pain.

"You tackled me!"

"That doesn't mean," Natsu shifted onto his knees, "ow! That does not mean you can hit me like that!"

"Don't fucking tackle me, then!"

"Fine, then how about I—" Natsu broke out of his pained position and swept his foot upwards, slamming into Gray's thigh. The force of the hit bent Gray's entire body and he tumbled to the floor. His head cracked against the ground—thankfully covered with foam workout mats that absorbed most of the impact—and bounced. The hard knock forced some sense into Gray's mind. He was not going to risk his health for Natsu's temper tantrum. Plus, if he wasn't physically capable for the mission, lord knows it wouldn't get done.

Gray scrambled to his feet and, instead of targeting Natsu, dashed towards the door.

"Wha—Hey!" Natsu yelled, suddenly switching around to chase after Gray.

Gray got there first and slammed the door shut behind him. He coated the door in as much ice as he thought would keep Natsu inside. Gray heard Natsu thud against the door from the other side. He added another layer of ice… just in case.

"GET THE FUCK BACK HERE, COWARD!" Natsu continued to yell. He slammed both of his fists against the door and caused small cracks to form in the ice. Gray could not keep reinforcing the seal, so he decided to leave before things got worse. He got to the stairs and slid down the railing. Somewhere in his descent he heard his ice wall cracking and crumbling apart, as well as the thudding of Natsu's angry footsteps getting progressively closer to him.

Gray hit the bottom floor fast and rolled to best absorb the impact. He bounced back onto his feet and looked quickly behind him. He briefly saw Natsu's small figure at the top of the stairs before Natsu started skidding down the railing. Gray panicked. He did not have anywhere to hide: Natsu was angry enough to follow him into his section. At some point, they would have to interact directly, and Gray knew it would not turn out well.

He wanted to delay that meeting as much as possible. Gray slammed his fist into his palm and created another wall of ice. However, this one was set in the middle of the railing, just a few feet in front of where Natsu was careening down it. He collided with the ice ankles-first, and Gray dimly heard Natsu's pained cusses as he dashed towards his section of the manor. As he ran, Gray hit his hands together once more, causing the existing ice wall to begin spreading onto Natsu's body. Frosty tendrils crept up from his feet and onto his shins. Natsu tried melting the ice, but found it had a particular resistance to his flames. Typically his fire would be effective, but in this particular situation the water caused by melting Gray's ice seeped into Natsu's clothes and only made it easier to spread. Natsu tried yanking his feet off of the wall, but he would slip and some other part of his body would come into contact with the ever-growing block of ice.

Natsu was effectively stuck to the stairs, but it wouldn't last forever. Gray could not keep up that level of magic over long distances, so once he got far enough away the creep of the ice would slow and eventually stop.

Gray ran into his kitchen and slammed the door behind him. He placed yet another ice wall down, sealing the door shut. He had an idea: it was stupid, but it was stupid enough to work.

He found the nearest window, a wide, elegant pane that shone sunlight into the dining table. He had recently discovered that a latch was hidden behind the decorative frame, allowing the window to be opened.

Gray relaxed the creeping ice that was keeping Natsu pinned to the stairs. He heard Natsu dropping and tumbling down the steps. Gray felt bad for a second, but he reminded himself that this was due karma for Natsu's stupid meltdown. He listened carefully. Gray could not hear as well as Natsu, and he was banking on that.

Natsu rattled Gray's doorknob and slammed on the wall. "Leave me alone!" Gray yelled.

"No! I'm gonna get in there and beat the living hell outta you!" Natsu yelled back, pounding on the door.

"I'll head to the upstairs theater, he won't find me there," Gray whispered to himself. With that, he stuck his torso out the window and threw himself out into the snow. He closed the window from outside. He couldn't latch it, but it had taken him weeks to realize these windows could even be opened: their decorative frames and huge panes did not give one the impression of functionality. Gray was sure Natsu would not find it.

Gray sat directly underneath the window, pressing himself as close to the wall as possible. He hoped the angle of the wall prevented Natsu from seeing him from inside. He also did not want to walk away from the window because his fresh trail of footprints would be suspicious.

Natsu slammed again and again on the door. Gray was seriously worried that he was going to rip down the wall to get inside, so Gray allowed his ice wall to cease. Natsu rattled the door again and realized the ice was gone. He grabbed the knob and threw the door open, so hard and so fast it collided into the doorstop and caused the wood to shudder in its frame. Gray cussed to himself—if he found out that Natsu damaged his door he'd throttle him.

He ran inside, quickly scanning the room for Gray's presence. When he could not find him, Natsu was reminded of the whispered sentence he'd heard through the door: "I'll head to the upstairs theater." Natsu grinned; his hearing was really useful sometimes. He bounded up the steps, not knowing exactly where the theater was but being confident he could find it.

Gray was not sure if Natsu had taken the bait or not, and his hearing was nowhere near as incredible for him to know if Natsu had gone up the stairs or not without peeking into the window. So, he kept his back pressed against the wall and counted down in his head from one-hundred and twenty. Two minutes. He'd give Natsu two minutes until he enacted the second portion of his plan.

After two minutes, Gray peeked up and over the window sill. He looked around the entry room, but did not see Natsu. He just had to hope that he had fallen for the bait. Gray creeped around the edge of the house and entered the shared room through one of the doors. His plan was not fully-hatched; it was based mostly on hopes. He wanted to send Natsu on a wild goose chase and—hopefully—in that time he would calm down enough to be reasoned with.

Gray sat on one of the stiff couches, his hands again falling into his nervous fidget.

Natsu had very much fallen for Gray's bait. He scoured the upper floor for any signs of the man but came up empty. Then he descended to the first floor and checked through that. Then, the third floor. He dropped back down to the second floor and checked it again, though with much lower hopes this time. The entire section smelt dimly of Gray and Natsu felt he could not search properly. He felt like he was going crazy—sometimes he would pick up on Gray's scent and follow the trail only to realize that it simply led to a place where Gray hung out a lot. Such false trails led Natsu to find a specific reclining chair in the library, Gray's bed, his seat at the dinner table, and even his favorite bathroom to use. He could only pick up on these trails if he really focused, otherwise he simply received the vague smell of Gray all around him.

After running through every single part of Gray's section twice, Natsu deduced that, truly, Gray was not here. But, where? Natsu had definitely heard him in here, and while his sense of smell had its faults, he trusted his superb hearing. That left only one option: trickery. Natsu stood in the middle of Gray's dining room, getting himself more and more riled up. He was being tricked! First, Gray has the audacity to flaunt his superior abilities, now he was actively shoving Natsu into the dirt with them.

'What did I do to deserve this?' Natsu thought, gripping the expensive mahogany table. His grip tightened until he saw his sharp nails digging into the varnish. 'Why does he get this expensive table and I don't? Why does he think he's so much better than me?'

Natsu did not know if he did this intentionally, if some deep part of his subconscious wanted it, or if the wiles of magic were extremely subject to the holder's emotions, but as Natsu grew increasingly angry, fire creeped from his fingertips. At first, it only discolored the area around his hands… but he grew bolder. Maybe he could find a way to pin this on Gray (not realizing, of course, that anyone would associate an accident with fire and Natsu). Gray's things got destroyed—not his! Natsu was not thinking straight. His hands burned even hotter, the varnish bubbling and fiery red lines tracing up the gain of the wood. Suddenly, coinciding with a burst of Natsu's magic, the fire exploded outwards, the insane heat catching the table and surrounding chairs on fire almost instantly.

Natsu laughed as the smoke began to rise. He definitely had an arsonist streak, and the sudden cracking of flames excited him like nothing else could. From outside, Gray thought he heard something going on. He went up to the door and pressed his ear to it. He heard… something. Muffled laughter and a sort of commotion he couldn't place exactly.

Natsu's head darted to face the door. Gray was on the other side! He heard him walk up. The high of the moment hadn't yet faded and he wanted Gray to see what he had done. He threw the door open to a shocked Gray, still leaning down as if the door was still there. Gray then saw what the commotion was—a fire! His jaw dropped.

"N-Natsu…" he mumbled. He was so shocked! He thought leaving Natsu alone would have calmed him down, not this!

"You like it, huh?" Natsu cackled. "That's what I think of your stupid expensive table."

"It's not even my table!"

"I don't care!"

The shock faded and Gray was left feeling pure anger. "Can you not be trusted at all?" he yelled.

"You're killing my mood!" Natsu yelled back, feeling his previous excitement fade almost instantly.

"What the hell does your mood have to do with this?" Gray gestured wildly at the burning table. "This is not about you! Not everything is about you!"

Natsu sneered indignantly at Gray, "You have no right to say that to me."

'What the fuck did I do to you, huh? I was just doing my job."

At that, Natsu tackled Gray. He couldn't help but be reminded of the last conversation they'd had. It had gone somewhat similarly; they had not learned anything from it.

This time, however, Natsu was not afraid to be destructive in his fighting. He used his flames wildly, incinerating pillows and charring sections of the floor. Gray tried desperately to mitigate the damage at first, but his emotions won out his rational mind and he started to return in kind to Natsu. His ice lost its careful placements and turned into spikes that would gash into the objects around it.

It all came to a head when, in an overzealous move, Natsu jumped up onto a table and attempted to throw a concentrated fireball at Gray. Gray was hunkered behind a few scattered ice shields, but they would not be enough to take the force of a blast that large. He placed his hands on the ground and, as quickly as possible, made a shield thick enough to take the hit. Natsu let go of the fireball and it made contact with the shield, the ice shattering into a million small pieces. It protected Gray, at the expense of a few scratches. Natsu, however, was not as lucky. The fireball hitting a wall so close to him caused it to explode with tremendous force. The tiles cracked and Natsu was thrown backwards multiple feet, along with a few shards of ice… directly into the glass wall.

Starting from where Natsu hit it, the wall splintered with delicate patterns of cracks. They continued to spread, especially as more ice shards made contact with the weakened glass. Natsu looked up in awe, the sounds of the glass cracking echoing throughout the entire room. Gray looked significantly more horrified.

One of the cracks spread to hit a wall and it was over. The sound of cracking was exchanged with the tinkling of glass shards falling to the floor as the entire wall came crashing down. Natsu screamed as he felt shards hitting his head and he moved quickly to curl together and cover his most vital areas.

It was over in seconds. The iron supports were all still standing, but the rest of the massive wall was now entirely empty, exposed to the bare outside. Gray gasped as he felt wind ripping through the room as well as the slow creep of snow falling onto the floor.

Natsu felt a horrible pit in his stomach as he unfurled himself. This mistake was not one he could recover from easily.

Gray spoke shakily, "Well, congrats. The mission is over. We failed."

Natsu just stared back at him, "huh?"

"Go pack your bags. I'll tell Ruth and the Master that we failed."

"No, wait—" Natsu squeaked.

"There is nothing else to wait for, Natsu," Gray said sternly. "Go pack your bags." He pointed towards Natsu's door.

Natsu stood up slowly. Glass fell from his back and shoulders as he rose, joining the huge pile that had collected on the floor. "...Okay," he whispered. Natsu slunk into his section, but he didn't get far. He barely got past his kitchen before collapsing against a wall and sinking to the floor.

He pressed his face together and tried not to show too much emotion, even with nobody else to see it.

"I fucked it all up."

Thank you sm for reading! Reviews and everything are appreciated. See you next time!