Ice and fire clashed causing explosions worth hundreds in collateral damage. The ground was covered in random patches of ice and spot fires. 'This, Gray though, brushing the sweat from his brow, ' is what is all about."

This was what every member of the fairy Tail superhero society dreamed about. Finally, an equal nemisis to test his skills against. As a long time B-class hero, Gray hadn't faced this type of foe in years, someone who could give as good as he got.

Parrying a fire laced fist, Gray postioned his hands in his patented two hand ice-make magic. His new nemisis, having the moniker 'E.N.D.', seemed to be having the time of his life, if his face splitting grin was anything to go by. Again and again they traded blows, doged punches and excuted expert kicks that would put black belts to shame. Lunging forward with a flaming fist, Gray counter attacked with an ice infused attack of his own. Seizing the opportunity created by the smokescreen of their powers clashing, Gray bolted through the smoke to catch his villian.

'Yes,' Gray affirmed as E.N.D. preformed a graceful back flip, avoiding one of his signature lance attacks, 'This is what being a hero is all about.'

Stumbling back into his shared apartment in the, somewhat, peaceful town of Magnolia, Gray winced at the growing bruses and superficial scratches and burns that littered his body. Damn that guy had got him good and as much as he hated to admit it, Gray was pretty sure that he would of lost if not for that conveintently timed distraction. Sighing at the outcome Gray could only lament. At this rate he was never going to make S-class and stand amoung the legendary heros like Titania, Storm or the She-Devil.

Gray had been with Fairy Tail superhero society since he was a child and, until recently, gave no shit about ranks or the like.

That was until rumors of Zeref began to circle around.

Zeref, or 'The black mage', was one of the most feared villians in Fiore and Alverez, responsible for the deaths of thousands. Trained by Ankhseram, an extremely powerful villian considered by many as a god, Zeref layed waste to hundreds of towns, including Gray's home. He created an anti-hero organization, The Etherious, in direct opposition of the newly formed Fairy Tail. From that day on, each new hero, complete with their own powers, have fought the forces of evil to keep Earth land safe. You know, the usual stuff. Unfortunately due to the decline of heroes being born, the governing body, the Hero Council, had to impose rules to keep the remaining heroes alive. See where he was going with this? Each hero is given a rank due to power, intellect and other abilites. That was all fine until Zeref was considered an SS-class villian.

Gray had to get stronger. He needed to for his mother, father and Master Ur.

He wanted vengeance but gramps wouldn't allow it.

Crawling through the window in hopes of not waking up his roomate, Gray stripped off his uniform for something less conspicuous. Stashing his mask, gloves, uniform and boots away, Gray fell face first into the cheap matress causing a cloud of dust to swirl through the air. The now ajar window directing the light of the rising sun right in his eyes.

Resisting the urge to yell profanities at the sun, he simply rolled over to face the cracked and graying wall. He really needed to find a better place to live, but unfortunately being a part-time hero is still a minimum wage job and Makarov, Master of his organization, refuses to let any of his 'brats' quit school. If not Gray would of taken punching a villian all day over calculus.

Glancing at the blinking alarm clock, Gray noted that he had a grand total of...an hour of sleep before school began for the day. Fuck it, he was calling in sick, with or without gramps's permission. There was no way he could function like this. Unlike his crazy ass roomate, who Gray was pretty sure was on crack because no one could be that happy in the morning, Gray was not a morning person.

'Speaking of roommates, he's going to be up any minute now...'

If the loud crashes echoing through the apartment were anything to go by, Gray was pretty sure that Natsu was up now.

"Grayyyyy! Get you perverted frosty ass outta bed! Or you're gonna be late!"

Yep, he was up all right.

"Go away flame-brain." Gray moaned. Moving was a pain and it wasn't like he could just tell Natsu that he ran around in a spandex suit, kicking ass. Not only was it embarrassing, but it was against the Hero Council regulations, leaving him with out an excuse as to why is face is now purple, or how did all that blood get on him.

According to council rule, under no circumstances should one purposely reveal their identity to a civilian, villain or fellow hero. It was due to this rule that Gray had no clue who most of the people he grew up with emreally/em were.

It was a sad thought.

"Move it or lose it ice-princess, we haven't got all day!"

Getting pretty sick of Natsu's imaginative nicknames, and secretly terrified that his naturally colder body temperature would give him away if he let Natsu continue, Gray responded in the politest way he knew.

"Go to hell, you stain on humanity."

Polite, yeah right.

"I'm already there." Natsu's teasing tone echoed through the halls, practically warning Gray that if he wasn't out in 5 minutes then Natsu was going to do what he does best.

Invading the privacy of others, which lead to even more problems for Gray. He couldn't even count the number of near misses he's had when Natsu's decided to take the saying of 'what's yours is mine' literally.

"Fine. I'm up. Gimme a sec, would ya?"

"Nope, you had your chance. Time to suffer! Muwhahaha!"

Procceding to kick open the door after is hella evil laugh, which gave Gray way too many flashbacks, Natsu opened his mouth only to close it.

"What, cat got your tounge?" Gray teased taking advantage of a, for the first time in human history, speechless Natsu.

Rasing a finger to point at Gray's face, which was covered in bruises, Natsu's eyebrows knitted in concern.

'He might be a jackass, ' Gray sighed, 'but he cares way too much for his own good.'

"...I can explain..?"

Natsu, seizing his hand, all but dragged Gray to their shared bathroom and sat him down on the closed toliet seat.

Pulling out the first aid kit, Natsu began to passive agressivly treat the minor wounds and abrasions, his hands shaking with anger. Bandaging the cuts and rubbing creams of the visible brusies, an awkward silence overcame the cramped space. It wasn't until Natsu had turned to leave that Gray broke the slience.

"...Natsu.", he softly called, "Just say something..."

"...I thought you had stopped. I-...it's just...I don't like seeing you hurt like this...for such a dumb reason. You're my best friend and I should be the only person kicking your ass, okay?"

This was the part that always made Gray feel guilty. The lies, the excuses. It was probably within the first week of moving in that Natsu noticed him leaving late at night and coming back in the morning, covered in injuries. After another week of the same thing Natsu finally approached him.

Flashback

Gray waltzed back into his apartment, tossing his keys from hand to hand.

"Hmmmm...wonder if there's anything good left..."

Flicking on the light to the kitchen he found his flatmate, Natsu if he had the name right, sitting at the small table, arms crossed.

"Uhhh, hi there?" Gray waved awkwardly, not sure if this guy was insanely hungry at 3am or was planning on killing him. With a raised eyebrow being the only response, Gray tried to ignore him in favor of raiding the fridge.

The keyword there being 'tried'.

Allowing his eyesight to drift to the clearly pissed off figure, Gray could only wonder what the hell was going on.

Okay, Gray was fine with letting Natsu stare at him for maybe 5 minutes, but this was emridiculous! It's been half an hour and the cold onyx eyes had not let his own person. It was legitimately freaking Gray out and to top it off he was too self conscious that couldn't even eat his sandwich!

"What is your problem dude?!" Gray practically screamed. He had faced evil mad-men without breaking a sweat, so why was this guys stare so intimidating?

"Why are you all beat up like that?"

Finally!

"Underground fight club."

Natsu looked shocked, "A What now?!"

"You heard me. Got a problem with that?" Gray guessed that he was probably not acting pretty convincing but he honestly didn't care. His 'Fight Club' alibi was perfect in all aspects and Gray prided himself on comming up with such a convincing story. He could pass off anything unusual by saying two simple words.

'Where did all his money come from?' Fight club.

'Why did he practice multiple styles of martial arts?' Fight club.

'Why did he come home late, sometimes beaten up?" Fight club.

"...is that even legal?" Natsu asked uncertainty, some hint of humour permeating through his onyx eyes.

"Nope." Gray casually remarked picking himself and his sandwich up, "So I gotta tell you that the first rule of Fight Club is don't talk about Fight Club. I would take that seriously if I were you, they mean business." With his piece said Gray retired to his room, leaving Natsu sitting at the table confused.

Flashback End

Now that they were friends, Gray regretted having to lie to Natsu about it, but it was the only way to keep his secret safe. So he let it continue. They had a routine by now, Gray would sneak in through the door and Natsu would pretend not to notice untill the morning, where they'd sit in slience as Natsu bandaged him up. And Gray would always pretend he didn't see the bandages peaking out from under Natsu's clothes.

When he started sneaking in through the window, Natsu assumed he had stopped going to his 'fight club'. He was so happy, Grat didn't have the heart to correct him.

"...come on, if we don't move now Erza will hand out asses to us." Grining at the sudden normality, Gray got up and headed towards his room. Obviously not without throwing an insult for good measure.

"She'd kick your ass you mean, Erza can't touch me."

Having a crazy roommate chase him through the hallway isn't exactly how he envisioned his life as hero, but as he closed the door, muffling out Natsu's cursing, he realized he really wouldn't have it any other way.