A/N: Hey all, I'm changing my pseuds from SnowfallBreeze and elmandfir to friendlyneighborhoodfairy. Since I'm apparently hard to find, I wanted to unify the name across all platforms.

I warned you there might be omake one day. ^^ This scene was originally in Demons of the Earth, but it wasn't serving the story. I like it and it fits here: Gray recovers from a panic attack, and his and Natsu's daughter has questions.

Omake: Let's Hold Hands

When Ikka awoke in the morning, she was the only person around the (now extinguished) campfire. That didn't scare her—she knew they'd be around here somewhere—but it did make her curious, lonely, and bored.

Circling the area keeping camp in view, she caught a low voice not too far away. Her fathers had for some reason crawled into a hidden area among some bushes, and she had to slide through on her stomach. She didn't bother announcing herself—she wasn't being quiet, and Natsu-tou likely heard the moment she was awake.

It wasn't until she got close to where they lay in the tall grass that she could hear someone gasping. She stopped.

"It's okay, snowflake," Natsu-tou soothed, calm. "You're safe. Slow down. Match your breathing to mine."

"You know full well," Gray panted, "that never works for me."

There was a low chuckle. "I do, and here I'm still trying it after thirty years. How much of an idiot does that make me?"

Another silence followed as Ikka listened to Gray-tou's frantic breaths.

"An idiot in love," Gray said quietly.

"Very true."

Still breathing hard, Gray-tou inhaled and said affectionately, "Baka."

"Ikka is just a little ways to your other side," Natsu said. "I don't want you to get startled. Ikka-chan, it's okay to come out."

On damp elbows and knees, Ikka crawled the rest of the way to them, emerging a little ways from Gray-tou. Natsu-tou lay on the other side of him, both men on their backs staring up.

"Ikka," Gray panted, looking at her with dark eyes. "Morning."

"Hey, lovely." Natsu smiled at her in reassurance and immediately calmed her. She hadn't known she needed it.

"H-Hi."

"It's okay: you can come closer," Natsu said. "Gray-tou doesn't want cuddling right now, but we can lie next to him."

"Okay," she said in a small voice.

They spent some minutes lying comfortably side by side, listening to Gray-tou's exhales get longer and slower.

After a bit, Natsu asked, "Can I hold your hand, love?"

Gray hesitated, then nodded.

As Ikka watched, Natsu slid his hand underneath Gray's and just let it rest there, his and Gray's fingers curling against each other but not grasping.

"That's not really holding hands," she commented. She wasn't sure why she said it, but of all the thoughts vibrating through her, that was the easiest to vocalize.

In answer, Natsu-tou leaned up on an elbow and looked down at Gray.

"Do you want to explain, or shall I?"

"You."

"When people panic, you don't want them to feel trapped," Natsu told her. "This—" he bumped his hand beneath Gray's, "—ensures he can get away whenever he needs to, escape if he needs to. But it also lets him know I'm here. That about right, love?" he finished, looking back down at Gray.

"Yeah." Gray inhaled, only somewhat trembly, and looked sideways at her. "When I have a panic attack, I can't have him facing me, where I feel crowded, and I can't have him behind me, where I can't see him in case he attacks."

"Why would he attack?"

"He wouldn't, but there are parts of me right now that don't know that. Being side-by-side is okay."

Ikka nearly tucked her chin against Gray-tou's shoulder, as she often did when scared, but remembered at the last second.

"Can I hold your hand?" she asked.

He smiled. "Yes."

She did what Natsu-tou had done, palm sliding beneath Gray's and resting there, open, and Gray-tou smiled wider.

"I like this," he murmured.

"Why do you have panic attacks?" she asked.

"Like you, I've had a hard life."

Gray-tou tilted his head to look over at her. It struck Ikka for the first time that she looked like him. The way his eyes watched the world, wary, noticing everything, seeming to read a thousand things that normal people didn't bother to. That was the same look she saw in the mirror.

"Remember how you used to panic after some of your nightmares? Sometimes that happens to me too."

"You watched them die, too," she whispered. "Yours."

She never talked about this. She didn't often remember—it happened so long ago, and the fragmented memories she had didn't tell a story; they were more a vivid sense of fear and blood and pain and terror. She didn't remember her first parents hardly at all—just that they had been, once upon a time; and she didn't like remembering that she couldn't remember, because it felt like something she shouldn't be allowed to forget.

"Yes, I did," Gray-tou said, his fingers slowly worming between hers, grip still loose. "Those are some of my unhappy memories. I also experienced some very bad people doing very bad things. I did some bad things to myself. In a few years, if you're interested, I'll tell you the story. Suffice it to say, it was scary and painful."

"So you get panic attacks."

"Yes. Even as you become braver than the things that you remember, Ikka—even after you've healed—you might still get scared sometimes. For me, it's just habit when I feel or hear certain things."

"You work through each incident as it happens," Natsu told her, "and when you feel ready, you go back to whatever you were doing when you got interrupted, and you continue the rest of your life."

Gray smiled, warm and encompassing, first at Natsu then at Ikka, and in that smile, Ikka could smile too. There was room to breathe inside that smile.

A sniff made them both blink. Natsu-tou wiped his eyes with his free hand.

"Aw, sunflower, you're crying again?" Gray asked.

"Yes. I mean, no. I'm just leaking."

Gray-tou chuckled.

"It's okay. Come here."

Gray-tou opened his arms and after a pause and silent question from Natsu, the latter collapsed on Gray's chest with a heavy sigh. Unprotesting, Gray rubbed his back and kissed his forehead. Finally sensing permission, Ikka curled up against her father's side, pressing her face between their two shoulders.

If Gray-tou was the scared one, Natsu-tou was the sad, emotional one. Gray was also the solide one and Natsu the brave one. She'd never even contemplated either of them being weak because neither was ever alone. They were a team.

All three of them were a team. A family.

"Thank you for rescuing me out of that building," she whispered against Gray-tou's arm.

Natsu sniffled again.

Squeezing her hand, Gray said, "We love you, Ikka. That will never, ever change."

A/N: I know it's short. I have some other half-written omake for this fic. One day I'll post them…