Note: The timeline is a little fluid here, but this would take place a few weeks or so after the first part.

"Come on! My rent is due in mere days!" Lucy wailed, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "We need to go on a job now!"

Natsu leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms, looking superbly unconcerned by her dramatics. "No can do, Luce."

"But why?" she asked, scowling at him in irritation.

Natsu's face bore only a polite disinterest, but his eyes were slightly narrowed as he stared past Lucy towards the entrance of the guild hall, which was directly opposite him.

"Because the ice princess still hasn't shown up yet. Not much fun going on a job without the whole team," he said mildly.

Lucy frowned over at him. "I guess, but you and I have gone on jobs by ourselves before. And I really need rent money. We could always go do a quick job now, and he can come on the next one with us."

Natsu glanced over at her, and there was a slight restlessness lurking in his eyes. "It's after noon, Lucy."

She blinked at him. "So?"

Erza looked over from where she had been listening to their conversation a short distance away. "I know it's odd, but there are any number of reasons he might not have come in yet," she reasoned.

"Yeah, well I have a bad feeling about it," Natsu grumbled, his sharp gaze locking on the doorway again.

Erza sighed. She had to agree with him. Gray was an early riser and always very punctual, so he should have been here for hours already. It was true that he could have a perfectly valid reason for being so late, but she also knew that Natsu had good instincts. The dragon slayer had grown more quiet and tense as the day wore on, and he had spent the last hour or so with his eyes more or less glued to the entrance of the guild hall.

"Well, let's give him a couple more hours before we panic and assume that something's going on," she said.

Natsu nodded once, but remained restless. Finally picking up on the tense atmosphere, Lucy refrained from pestering them to go on a job with her. The trio remained relatively quiet as they waited, even as the normal bustle of the guild raged around them. Erza obtained a glass of water from Mira and sipped at it slowly as she considered Gray's absence. She wasn't really worried that he was in danger or anything, but she wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't come to the guild yet because he was upset over something.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't see the newcomer at first. Natsu was the first to notice since he was still watching the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" he asked suddenly.

Erza looked up quickly, her eyes darting to the guild's entrance as Natsu's voice jerked her out of her thoughts. She frowned as she saw that Lyon had just walked into the guild. She couldn't think of any good reason why he would be here now.

He didn't respond at first, just glancing around the room as if searching for someone, before shrugging.

"He's not here then?" he asked, although it didn't really sound like a question. He didn't seem surprised.

Natsu's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What did you–?"

"No," Erza interrupted, throwing Natsu a warning look. "He hasn't come in all day. Is something wrong?"

Lyon sighed and walked over to the table she and Lucy were sitting at. He sat down next to them, and after a moment Natsu sat as well, still watching the newcomer suspiciously.

"Today is the anniversary of Ur's death," Lyon said finally, grimacing faintly at the table's surface.

Erza let out her breath with a soft hiss. That would explain Gray's absence for sure.

"Well, damn," Natsu muttered. "I told you something was wrong."

"Oh no, should we go after him?" Lucy asked, her eyes wide. "I mean, he shouldn't really be alone, right?"

Lyon shook his head sharply. "Let him be. He's always liked to deal with things alone and he doesn't like being around other people when he's upset."

Natsu scowled but nodded in agreement.

"So what should we do then?" Erza asked. She studied Lyon. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to sit here and wait for him," Lyon answered flatly. "And if he doesn't come back today, I'll track him down at his flat later. He doesn't always like being hunted down, but he'll come back when he's ready."

Erza shifted restlessly but nodded her agreement. After a few moments of tense silence, Lucy valiantly tried to start up a conversation and didn't give up until she had gotten both Natsu and Lyon talking. Erza watched them a few minutes longer before standing up and walking away while they were distracted.

"Where are you going, Erza?" Natsu called after her, not fooled by her sly attempt to escape unnoticed.

She glanced back and smiled at him reassuringly. "I'll be back soon. Don't mind me."

She was already out the door and halfway down the street before they realized that she had never answered the question.

Erza walked down the street at a brisk pace, turning her head from side to side as she searched for Gray. She didn't know exactly where he was, but she did know that he had a penchant for wandering the streets when he was upset. She knew that Lyon and Natsu were right about Gray preferring to be alone when he was unhappy, but if he didn't want her to come after him, he shouldn't always be coming after her. It was rather hypocritical of him to tell her not to cry alone and insist on handling her problems by herself, when he turned around and did the exact same thing. Before, he had always been the one to track her down when she was upset and hiding by herself, and now it was her turn to do the same for him.

She combed the streets for a good half hour before she finally spotted a glimpse of raven hair and pale skin through a break in the crowd. Busy passersby immediately concealed him from view again, but Erza was convinced that it had been her missing friend. She worked her way over to the other side of the street and nodded to herself as Gray came into view.

Then she frowned. Gray was standing motionless on the sidewalk outside a shop, staring through the window blankly. It was odd behavior, and she didn't know what to make of it. Walking up behind him, her eyebrows inched upwards as she realized that this was a dress shop, of all things.

"I never took you for a window shopper," she said mildly.

Gray jerked back in surprise and turned to face her. "Erza? What are you doing here?"

She moved up beside him. "Trying to figure out why you're so interested in dresses."

"Huh?" A bewildered expression crossed his face and he looked back at the window, his eyes widening slightly. "Oh," he said, blinking at the frilly dresses as if noticing them for the first time.

Erza frowned faintly as she peered into the window as well, trying to figure out what he had been looking at since it seemed like he hadn't been interested in the dresses after all. She didn't see anything that should have engrossed him so completely, so she gave up the search. She started to turn away so that she could chew him out for his hypocritical behavior and then try to get him to talk about his feelings, but as she was twisting her head away, she noticed something and paused.

She leaned forward a little, staring at her pale face reflected in the glass. Beside her, Gray's drawn face was reflected as well, and Erza had a sudden flash of insight as she recalled something he had once said to her.

"It's you, isn't it?" she breathed, the words pouring out before she had time to really think about them. She turned back to face him, a nauseous feeling settling in her stomach as she studied his face.

"What's me?" he asked, confusion clouding his features once more.

"The person you can't forgive."

He didn't respond immediately. Erza stared into those fathomless dark eyes until he sighed and closed them. He rubbed at his face for a second before dropping his hand and opening his eyes again. He stared down at her, his face suddenly expressionless.

"Walk with me," he said finally.

Without waiting for a response, he turned and began walking away down the street, his hands jammed into his coat pockets once more. Taken by surprise, Erza hurried after him, slowing to a more normal pace as she pulled up beside him. Gray's eyes were fixed on the ground several feet ahead of them, and they walked in silence for several long minutes. Erza briefly considered what she could say to him, but decided that she was content to wait for him to speak first.

"It's the anniversary of Ur's death today," he said eventually, not looking at her.

"I know," she replied quietly. That startled a reaction out of him, and he glanced over at her in surprise. She hurried to clarify. "Lyon told us."

"Lyon? He's here?" Gray asked, something Erza couldn't read coloring his voice.

"Yeah," she answered. "He's waiting for you in the guild hall."

Gray's lips tightened into a faint grimace as he looked away again. "Ah."

"Don't you want to go see him while he's here?" she asked curiously.

"Later," he said shortly, with a sharp shake of his head.

They lapsed into silence once more, until Erza was afraid that she was losing ground again.

"Where are we going?" she asked after the silence had stretched on a little too long. She was trying to coax him into talking since he didn't seem inclined to tell her much of anything at the moment.

"Hm?" He tore his eyes away from the ground and glanced around them. "Nowhere, really. I'm just walking. You know, sometimes your feet will take you right where you need to go if you let them do their job without interference. I don't know where I'm going and I don't know where I need to be, but maybe I'll end up there anyway."

Erza blinked up at him. "Someone's waxing philosophic today."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, offering her a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I suppose it's one of those days."

"It's alright," she assured him quickly. "You were rather philosophical when we were talking about forgiveness the other day too, and that ended up helping me out." She gave him a reproachful look. "And I do recall that one of the things you said was that I shouldn't be trying to handle everything alone, and that I shouldn't hide from my friends when I'm hurting."

Gray picked up the meaningful tone and sighed. "Yes, being hypocritical has always been one of my greatest faults. I can give out advice, but I can't always follow it myself."

"Including your advice on forgiveness?" she ventured.

His gaze wandered off to the side. "Especially that."

Erza hesitated. She knew that he didn't particularly want her to pry, but there was no way in hell she was going to leave things like this.

"Is this about Ur?"

He winced automatically. "In a way, I suppose so. It started there and then kept right on snowballing."

Erza almost asked him for clarification, but stopped herself. She had a pretty good idea of what he meant. His inability to forgive himself might have stemmed from what happened to his master, but she imagined that once he found himself unable to forgive himself for one thing, he started having more and more trouble forgiving himself for the smaller things that came afterwards too.

It really wasn't fair, she reflected. Gray's advice on forgiveness had really helped her over these past few weeks. She couldn't say that she had totally forgiven Jellal yet, but she was a lot closer than she had been before Gray had found her at the river. It was sad that Gray could help her so much but be unable to help himself. Perhaps she could do something instead.

"Well, you acknowledged your mistake and know what you did wrong. And I'd say that you've worked pretty damn hard to make up for it," she mused thoughtfully.

Gray glanced over at her and arched an eyebrow. "Are you parroting my own advice back to me?" he asked dryly.

"Well, you said that you couldn't take your own advice," she said with a shrug. "Maybe it will help if someone else gives it to you instead."

He stared at her for a moment before shaking his head and smiling faintly. "I appreciate the sentiment."

But this wasn't just a sentiment. Erza had every intention of making this work and she was going to help him the same way he had helped her. She had thought over his advice quite a bit since they had talked, so she remembered it quite well. Maybe she could use it to help him.

"The second thing," she continued relentlessly, "is that you have to recognize that you've done good things and have good qualities too. That you're more than your mistakes."

"Mhm," he hummed. "I see you remember."

Erza wasn't going to be deterred. "So?"

"So what?" he asked.

"What are some good things you've done? What are some of your good qualities?" She watched him carefully, but he had tilted his head so that his eyes were shadowed and unreadable. She got the impression that his gaze was unfocused and that he wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings, but she couldn't be sure.

"I know that I have my positives," he said eventually.

"That's not a real answer," she argued. "Tell me something concrete."

Gray didn't answer for a few minutes.

"Well…I'm strong…" He spoke the words slowly, as if testing them as he uttered them. His voice lilted upwards slightly at the end, making his statement sound almost like a question. The hesitant, almost questioning, tone persisted as he continued speaking. "And I've helped Fairy Tail in a lot of our fights. And…and…I'm…"

He sighed harshly and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know, Erza. Ask me tomorrow. I know I have a lot of good qualities, but it's hard to remember them all on a day like this."

Erza's heart twisted painfully at the sight of her normally confident and self-assured friend reduced to this tentative wreck. She knew that he was usually a lot more self-confident, but she supposed that he was too busy reliving his failures to really believe in his successes right now.

"Let me look at you." She reached over and pulled his face towards her so that he was finally looking at her again. Narrowing her eyes contemplatively, she studied his startled features.

The duo paused in the middle of the street, ignoring irritated pedestrians as they stared at each other. After a moment, Erza nodded sharply and released him. She started walking again and, after a brief pause, Gray followed suit.

"When I look at you, I see someone who tries to hide his emotions and play it cool but is still always the first to stand up for the people he cares about. I see someone who is one of the toughest people I've ever met but who can still be gentle and caring when he needs to be. I see someone who is loyal to a fault and who will fight to the bitter end for the people he loves and the causes he deems important."

She sighed and tilted her face upwards as she walked so that the afternoon breeze brushed against her face and tugged at her scarlet hair. "I see one of the best friends I've ever had and one of the best friends that many other Fairy Tail mages have ever had as well. I see someone who's always trying to help other people with their problems instead of taking care of himself. I see someone who always puts his friends first, and someone who is currently having a hard time seeing how much everyone cares about him."

Gray didn't say anything for a moment, but Erza could feel him staring at her. Glancing over, she confirmed that his dark eyes were indeed locked on her face.

"I wish that I could see all the things you see," he said finally.

She sighed softly. "The third thing," she continued in a quiet voice as she looked away, "is that you have to be able to recognize your own imperfections and mistakes. I don't think you're having a problem with that one. That's why you can't see the things we see, isn't it? Because you're having a hard time seeing past your mistakes."

She could still remember the poignancy of something he had said when they had last talked down at the riverbank: "Because every time you look at their face, you see all of their past wrongs written there, overlaid on the person they are now…You want to be able to look at them and not see your pain and betrayal reflected there, but no matter how hard you try, there's something in their face that holds you back and refuses to allow you to completely let go of everything bad they've done."

"Something like that," he murmured.

She looked back over at him. "I told you what I see when I look at you. Now tell me, Gray, what do you see when you look at yourself?"

His shoulders slumped a little as he considered her question. Then he turned away from her and paused for just a second to stare at his reflection in the window of a shop they were passing. His pale fingers skimmed the glassy surface as he ran his hand along the window with an almost wistful gentleness.

"I see the face of the angry, self-destructive boy who killed his master," he said quietly.

His fingers dropped away from the glass and he slipped his hand back into his pocket as he continued walking on. Erza remained motionless, staring at her own reflection in the window. She didn't understand how someone could live their life always seeing their past mistakes every time they looked at their face. She had gone through her own share of self-blame and self-doubt after she had abandoned her childhood friends in the Tower, but she had also been able to move past that, more or less.

She twisted so that she was looking after Gray's retreating form. He was walking at a leisurely pace, but he wasn't waiting for her. No, Gray had never been one for waiting. He would take care of himself and run himself into the ground before asking for help. If Erza wanted to help him, she would have to follow him and catch him herself.

She followed him quickly and didn't slacken her brisk pace until she was walking beside him again.

"You were just a kid," she said quietly.

Gray's lips twisted into a bitter smile. "Just because I was a kid doesn't mean I was completely stupid. You think I didn't know that going after Deliora was a fool's quest? A suicide mission? I was angry enough and grief-stricken enough that I didn't care." He blew out a harsh breath. "But I was the only one who was supposed to get hurt. Ur shouldn't have even been there, but she came after me."

Erza hesitated, unsure of how to proceed. She needed a way to erase some of that bitterness and self-loathing. She needed him to be okay.

"Before Ur's death, you were angry at Deliora, right? Because it killed your family?"

He shrugged, his gaze still fixed on the ground. Erza wondered how he could tell where he was going when he was ignoring his surroundings so completely, but then remembered that he wasn't trying to go anywhere in particular. In fact, it looked as if he was deliberately remaining oblivious to the outside world just to see where he'd end up if he didn't know where he was going or what was going on around him.

"I guess. That's what got Ur killed."

"No, Deliora is what got Ur killed," Erza disagreed, her eyes flashing. "Deliora killed your parents and it killed your master too. Yeah, you screwed up, but it was the demon who murdered Ur. You were angry at it before, when it killed your family, but after it killed Ur you turned all of that anger towards yourself instead. It's still Deliora's fault, Gray."

He sighed. "I know that," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Sometimes the mind knows what the heart cannot understand."

Erza watched him sadly. "And so you still blame yourself."

"Of course," he replied immediately. "My actions still played a key role in her death."

Erza was about to respond, but paused as she noticed their surroundings. Gray might not yet realize where they were going, but she thought that she might know.

Evidently she had waited a beat too long, because Gray added something else. "She came after me, Erza. That's why she died. She died because she chased after me."

He looked at her with haunted eyes, and there was a sort of pointed meaningfulness hidden beneath the raw anguish in his voice. She considered the words, trying to pinpoint what it was that he was trying to tell her. Then she grimaced faintly. Ur had died because she had gone after Gray. No wonder he didn't like it when people came chasing after him.

"I came after you and I'm doing perfectly fine," Erza said quietly. "I'm not going anywhere."

Gray let out a breath and looked at the ground again, lost in his own thoughts. "My parents came for me too, when they realized what was happening the night Deliora destroyed my town. And they died for it too. When the people I care about come after me, they get hurt, Erza."

His tone was wistful and melancholy, but also a touch absent, as if he wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying. Based on the vacant look in his eyes, Erza wouldn't be surprised. And because he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, he was about to get himself into a lot of trouble.

Erza hurriedly grabbed onto his arm and tugged him backwards a step.

"Huh?" Gray blinked in surprise, jolted out of his thoughts. He stared uncomprehendingly at the water he had been about to fall into, before slowly looking around.

"Sometimes your feet will take you right where you need to go," Erza said with a small smile as she released his arm.

He watched their river for a moment before nodding. "I suppose so."

"But this is only a pit stop," she added. He looked over her and raised an eyebrow in question. "You know that where you really need to go is Fairy Tail."

Gray pursed his lips and returned his gaze to the river. "Perhaps."

Erza sighed. "Look, Gray. This river is where I always came to be alone, but you always came after me and found me here. You're so insistent that we never come for you, but you're always chasing after us to take care of us. Sometimes you have to let us return the favor."

He didn't reply, and they stood in silence for several long minutes. Erza eventually decided to break the stillness. She still needed to convince him to come back to Fairy Tail with her. He had always brought her home when he found her here alone. It was her turn to lead him home this time.

"Why don't you want to see Lyon?" she asked.

Gray glanced over at her and frowned. "It's not so much that I don't want to see Lyon," he replied slowly. "It's more that I don't want him to see me."

Erza frowned in turn, trying to puzzle out the logic behind the statement. "Why?"

He laughed sharply. It was a bitter, unamused sound. "When we talked last time, you wanted to know about forgiveness. You immediately assumed that I was talking about Lyon, and you focused on the ways he wronged me and how I forgave him. But Erza, perhaps it's you who hasn't been understanding. In my relationship with Lyon I'm the Jellal, not Lyon. The things Lyon did to me don't hold a candle to the wrong I've done by him."

Erza slowly let out a shuddering breath as she considered that. It was true that she usually thought of what Lyon had done on Galuna Island as the defining instance of betrayal and forgiveness in the relationship between the two ice mages. But she really should have realized that the problem here wasn't only Gray's inability to forgive himself, but also his inability to accept that Lyon could forgive him.

"I don't think that there is a…'Jellal' in your relationship. You've both screwed up and both forgiven each other. If there's a 'Jellal' in your relationship, it's only because you've created one."

Gray just shook his head and stayed silent.

Erza sighed and tried again. "When you say that you don't want him to see you, it's because you're afraid of what he'll see in your face, isn't it? What is it that you think he'll see when he looks at you?"

Gray stared out at the river pensively for several long seconds before answering. "He'll see the person who brought about the death of his teacher and role model. The person whose actions were the catalyst for his obsession with reviving a demon. The person whose anger and stupidity created a world of heartbreak and pain for everyone involved."

"And what makes you think that that's what he sees?" Erza asked softly.

Gray took a small step forward and peered down into the waters directly before his feet, staring at his distorted reflection.

"Because when I look in the mirror, that's what I see," he answered.

Erza inched up beside him. "Lyon told you that he forgave you, right?"

Gray shrugged and nodded, still watching the water absently. "Do you think that when you forgive Jellal, you'll instantly forget about all the bad things he's done? I told you, you don't just forgive and forget. There would still be times when you looked at Jellal's face and saw the person he had been. It doesn't matter that you forgave him. Unless you can magically forget his mistakes, you'll always be able to see them."

Erza thought about that. "You say that you can see a person's past reflected on their face—that you can see the person they were overlaid on the person they currently are. The person you see reflected on your face is an angry child whose desperate need for revenge inadvertently caused Ur's death."

She leaned against his shoulder and peered down at the water as well, regarding their wavering reflections standing side by side. "The person I see reflected on your face is an angry child who could look past his own grief and anger when he found someone else who was hurting. I see the boy who came down to the river to challenge me to a fight and ended up sitting with me while I cried instead. Gray, I see the boy who always chased after me when I thought I didn't want anyone to follow me.

"Who is it that you think Lyon sees in your face? Is it the same child you see? Or is it the child from before—the boy he laughed with and learned magic with and counted as a brother?"

Gray tore his eyes away from their reflection and looked down at her. She stared back. His dark eyes were clouded with pain and grief and indecision.

"He came all the way down here to see you, Gray. This time he was the one who chased you down. Do you think that he would seek you out if he saw a person he hated every time he saw your face?"

"I–I don't know," Gray said hoarsely.

"Exactly," Erza responded with a sad smile. "You won't know until you ask. You once told me that I would never know how much someone understood unless I gave them a chance. Take your own advice. You won't know what he sees in you unless you give him a chance to show you.

"But…I can almost guarantee that if you watch him when he's looking at you, you won't find any sign that he's seeing the same boy you're seeing. Take the time to figure out what he sees when he looks at you, Gray."

Gray swallowed hard and looked away. "Yeah," he said finally. "Alright."

"Are you ready to go back to Fairy Tail then?" Erza asked.

She held her breath as she waited for his response. He didn't answer immediately. His gaze drifted back down to their reflection in the river once more, before he looked back up at her.

"As long as you come with me," he said quietly.

Erza smiled at him, remembering their last exchange by this river.

"Always," she replied.

He smiled back then. It was a sad, wavering smile, but it was grateful as well. Erza hooked her arm around one of his and led him away from the river. He walked alongside her obediently as she headed back to the guild. They walked in silence until the guild hall came into sight.

"Thank you, Erza," Gray whispered as they approached the guild.

She smiled at him sadly. "This is what you always do for me, Gray," she told him. She recalled the promise he had extracted from her last time. "Next time you're hurting or crying, come to us instead of hiding away."

He arched an eyebrow. "I wasn't crying."

She stared back at him, unfazed. "Do you have to be crying to be alone?"

He blinked at her for a second before glancing away. "No, I suppose not," he admitted quietly.

She tightened her grip on his arm and then released it. "You aren't alone as long as you have us. It's okay to rely on us when you need us, and you shouldn't be afraid of us chasing you down when we think we need to."

"Alright," he agreed.

He glanced back down at her and gave her a half-smile. She smiled back, and then pushed open the doors of the guild. They walked in together and were instantly spotted by Lyon and the rest of Team Natsu.

"That's where you went?" Natsu asked incredulously, giving Erza a disbelieving look. Then his gaze shifted to Gray and his eyes softened slightly. "Welcome back, ice block."

Gray nodded in his general direction but didn't look at him. As Erza remained standing by the door, he walked straight over to Lyon. The older mage opened his mouth to say something, but the younger man wasn't listening. Gray stopped directly in front of him and grabbed his chin, tilting his face upwards so that they were staring at each other's faces.

"Huh?" Lyon made a startled noise, his eyes wide as he met Gray's intense gaze.

Erza quietly made her way over to the group and stood near Natsu as she watched the scene play out between the two ice mages. After a few seconds, Gray nodded once and released Lyon. He glanced over at Erza.

"You were right," he said.

She smiled. She wasn't sure what exactly he had seen in Lyon's eyes, but it seemed to have been enough.

"What?" Lyon asked, a confused and completely taken aback look on his face as he stared at his friend in disbelief. Gray's odd behavior had obviously rattled him.

Gray looked back at Lyon and then took a step back so that he wasn't crowding the other mage anymore. He suddenly got a lost, hesitant look on his face, and couldn't seem to quite meet Lyon's eyes again.

"Walk with me?"

Erza wasn't sure if he meant it as a statement or a question, but it came off as a hesitant request.

Lyon blinked at Gray for a moment before nodding. "Of course."

Gray finally met his eyes again, and they seemed to come to some sort of understanding. They both turned and walked out of the guild hall side by side.

Natsu sidled up beside Erza, his eyes fixed on where Gray had just disappeared. "Do you think he'll be alright?" he asked.

Erza considered it. She thought that Gray would keep learning how to forgive himself with the help of his friends. It wasn't like he would just be okay overnight, but that was alright. Forgiveness was, after all, a process. It was a process that they would help him with, and she supposed that her friends would help her as she struggled through that process as well. In time, she thought that they would both learn forgiveness.

"Yeah," she said finally. "I think we'll be just fine."