Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong to Hiro Mashima, all others belong to me.

Chapter 13: Sometimes You Just Have To Let Go (Saturday and Beyond)

The trip back on the Christina was uneventful, all three of the patients were unconscious so only Gajeel and Rogue had to deal with their motion sickness. All of them were worried about Gray, he had not woken up since passing out in the alley. The healer had been able to stabilize him somewhat but they were all anxious to get him back to Fairy Tail to the capable hands of Porlyusica and Wendy.

Saturday proved to be a very hectic day for the Fairy Tail guild. Master Bob brought the million jewel reward personally the next day. He wanted to check on Sting, Gray and Natsu's progress. He informed Team Natsu and Sting and Rogue that as long as he was master of Blue Pegasus their money would be no good there, even Natsu.

Members of the Magic Council also arrived wanting to question the mages on the events of the previous night, having been alerted to their use of magic on non-mages by the Rune Knights. They had no luck, the only mage they could talk to was Rogue and he refused to leave Sting's side, even Porlyusica had given up on getting him out of the infirmary.

Jason showed up for the exclusive he had been promised by Erza as he had been informed of the previous night's events by the Blue Pegasus mages when he showed up looking for Natsu and Gray. He quickly postponed their interview and photo shoot to give them time to recover from their injuries. He decided to run with another story for this week's issue and he began to collect information on the attack and how Fairy Tail and Sabertooth had put a stop to it. He spent hours getting the details from Erza, Lucy and Rogue, whom he joined in the infirmary, They also pointed him towards Koen who had witnessed more of the attack than any of them. They purposefully did not tell him about Andre choosing to protect the boy from any more attention and promised to let him know when the others awoke. He left in search of Koen determined to have this be the biggest story of his career.

Sting, Gray and Natsu were still unconscious, although Porlyusica anticipated the dragon slayers would regain consciousness soon. Sting had a lot of other injuries that would require him to be awake to heal properly. Natsu had made his magic drain worse by casting such a strong spell as his Lightning Fire Dragon Roar, it had allowed the maser to drain him of more of his magic than would have normally been possible. It would take him days to fully recover even with Porlyusica's potions.

Natsu woke up late Saturday afternoon feeling weak but otherwise ok. Porlyusica had demanded he stay in bed for another day to recuperate and let her potions have a chance to work. It was now Monday and he currently sat at Gray's bedside holding his hand under the watchful eye of the healer, who seemed to expect Natsu to attack her patient at any moment. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was trying to will Gray awake but the stubborn idiot refused to cooperate with him as usual.

Natsu sighed. When did things get so damn complicated? When he'd run into that alley to rescue Gray he had been worried of what he would find and somehow, even with all his injuries the ice mage had kept fighting, had even ironically ended up rescuing him although that part was a little hazy for him. He still hadn't made much sense of what had happened, all he knew was how he felt when Gray had surrounded him with his ice. Instead of being cold and uncomfortable it had felt like he was being embraced by Gray himself. The ice had an odd quality that was all Gray and he couldn't say he didn't like it, he had felt safe and protected and…..loved. All the things that he he hadn't felt since Igneel had left and they had come from the person he had least expected. He also felt guilty, full of the knowledge that had he not once again been so busy running away from his feelings neither Sting nor Gray would have been put in a position to get hurt. He hoped Rogue was not too angry with him.

Once he had been cleared by Porlyusica, Natsu had gone downstairs. The mission was finally over and he was back at his beloved guild but instead of everything being back to normal like he wanted all he could see was Gray. Everywhere he looked there was a memory of the ice mage. Gray drinking, eating, fighting, stripping, laughing. It wasn't just in the guild. He walked outside and it was much of the same. They had spent seven years growing up together in Magnolia. They'd fought almost continually with words and fists, competed endlessly over anything and everything which was their version of playing and in the process they had made each other stronger. In those seven years they'd developed a relationship that was now at risk and Natsu was faced with a difficult decision.

He made his way to his home and didn't come out until the next day. He sent Happy to the guild to get updates on Gray's condition every few hours and the Exceed did so not knowing what had happened between the two but sensing that something had changed. Sting and Rogue came to visit before they went back to Sabertooth and Sting was able to fill him in on what had happened after he had run off. Natsu apologized to him for not warning him about the attacks and for pretending to be gay. Sting shrugged it off and said that he could make it up to him by treating them to the dinner they had missed, once Gray was better. He was well aware of Gray's feelings for his friend and he had hope that even though Rogue refused to tell him what he knew about Natsu's feelings with a little push they might still end up together. He could wait for Gratsu to become a reality, he grinned internally at the ridiculous name he had come up with for them. His head still full of plans.

Early Tuesday morning Natsu had packed his things and he and Happy stopped at the guild. Mira watched silently from the kitchen as Natsu went upstairs to check on Gray, who had yet to awaken. He sat with him for an hour holding his hand and running his fingers through Gray's hair as he slumbered on. When he could not stand to see him this way any longer he leaned in and kissed the ice mage's forehead.

"I'm sorry, I have to go. I promise we'll talk soon." Natsu leaned in one last time and kissed Gray's lips softly. "Goodbye, please be awake when I get back.", he pleaded. He gave the ice mage's hand one last squeeze before he left as quietly as he had arrived. Happy had watched Natsu carefully and thought he finally understood what was happening. He thought about teasing the fire mage but something told him it would not be a good idea at the moment.

Mira watched Natsu and Happy leave. No one seemed to know what was going on between the two rivals. When the magazine had first come out they had all been excited by the news. There had been some jeers but mostly cheers and of course Juvia had immediately lost it and flooded the guild. Soon after it had dawned on some of them that Team Natsu had left to perform a job that was off books and perhaps this had something to do with it but Mira and many others hoped that it was true. Both boys had been through a lot in their lives, everyone knew that even if they didn't show it they were lonely and truth be told they never seemed to pay attention to anyone except each other. What was that saying? Negative attention is better than no attention at all? Yes, Mira thought that was it. She wondered where Natsu was going as he had not picked any mission and was banned from active duty for a few more days. He was certainly not in need of money. The master had divided the reward between the four mages. Natsu and Gray each received 375 thousand jewels, while Lucy and Erza got 125 thousand jewels. Mira could only hope that he didn't do something he would come to regret. Natsu did not handle feelings well. She could still remember how he had reacted when they had thought Lisanna had died and how long it had taken him to get back to normal.

Gray finally came to on Wednesday although he almost wished he hadn't. His head hurt like hell and he had trouble putting thoughts together, when he talked he sounded almost drunk. It was very disconcerting. He watched Porlyusica examine him and was struck by a sudden wave of sadness. Something about her hair, he thought, but just when he thought he had made a connection the thought was gone again.

When she finished her examination Porlyusica left the room to inform Makarov of his progress. Soon after the door of the infirmary opened and four girls came in. They all looked familiar but their names escaped him at the moment. He was happy to see them but at the same time he was disappointed. There was someone missing. It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see Erza, Lucy, Cana and Juvia it's just that they weren't….who?

'That's right, those are their names', he thought happily.

He let them fawn over him as he struggled to find the missing person his mind refused to let him see. Others came to visit and he was able to remember most of them although some of their names were still evading him. Not wanting to insult anyone he gave them temporary nicknames in his mind, things like guy who smokes all the time, girl with purple hair, and his personal favorite weird dancing dude. He had a feeling that it would all come back to him soon, he just had to be patient. He'd had plenty of head injuries in the past from jobs and all the fighting he did with…...dammit, it was almost there. He fell asleep soon after, exhausted from fighting with his brain. His other injuries also contributing to his fatigue.

The next time he awoke there was a name that came to him, Natsu. He thought about the name and an image came to his mind of a pink haired boy with a beautiful smile and a fiery disposition. He smiled, that's who he had been looking for yesterday. The events that had led him to the infirmary were still a mystery to him but he instinctively knew that Natsu had something to do with them. He thought that maybe Porlyusica had asked his friends not to talk about what had happened until he began to remember on his own and he was struggling with the things he did remember. He wondered why Natsu had not come to visit him. He began to worry that maybe something happened to him that they didn't want him to know. He determined to ask Lucy or Erza when they came to visit.

It was Erza who came in with his breakfast, once she had helped him sit up to eat it she sat down in one of the chairs near his bed.

"Erza, where's Natsu?", he asked trying not to show how important the answer was to him, "Is he ok?"

"He's fine. Porlyusica let him go home on Monday.", Erza thought for a moment about how to phrase her next words. She'd been wondering why he hadn't asked about Natsu yet, "Mira said she saw him leave with Happy on Tuesday after coming to visit you."

Gray filed away the happiness that had filled him when he heard that the flame brain had come to see him for later analysis. "Is he on a job?"

"He's banned from active duty at the moment, as are you.", Erza said as she shrugged trying to make it seem like Natsu being gone was nothing for Gray to worry about, "It's been awhile since he's gone to look for Igneel, maybe he decided now would be a good time. You shouldn't worry about him, worry about getting better instead."

"So, he's gone?", Gray asked and he wondered why his heart hurt upon learning that information. What have I forgotten?

"For now.", Erza agreed, "I'm not worried. He'll be back when he's ready. If he doesn't we'll find him and drag him back, we're his home after all."

Gray nodded slowly, that sounded right.

"How are you feeling?", Erza asked trying to change the subject, "You gave us quite a scare."

Gray thought about the question before answering. "I'm ok, I guess. I'm having trouble remembering things. I still can't remember what happened to get me here but I'm beginning to get images in my mind, like disjointed pieces of a puzzle I can't quite put together yet. I can't help but feel that some of it has to do with Natsu somehow. When I hadn't seen him I thought that maybe he had…..", he paused not being able to say the word and then decided to rephrase instead, " that something had happened to him."

"Wendy and Porlyusica have healed everything else at this point. I should be able to go home soon."

"That's good news.", Erza said. She stayed for as long as Porlyusica allowed.

"What was wrong with Natsu?", he asked the healer a few hours later.

She looked down at him from her examination of his head. "Why don't you tell me what you remember?"

He frowned at her in frustration. She gave him the same answer every time he asked her anything.

"We were doing a job at Blue Pegasus. Something about attacks. Natsu and I were pretending something…...but we weren't good at it. There was a young boy and Juvia was crying. Natsu ran away and he was in danger. Sting and Rogue were there and we were dancing? There was an alley and…. ", he could never get farther than that, "Ugh! Why won't you just tell me?"

"It'll come, your brain will tell you when you're ready.", she soothed, "You're remembering more every day. Now get some rest." She left him alone with his thoughts and finally he fell asleep.

That night he had a dream, all the puzzle pieces finally clicked together. He and his team had been doing a job at Blue Pegasus. They had to stop a group of people attacking gay men leaving the club. Natsu and he were pretending to be a couple and somewhere along the way Gray had fallen in love with Natsu. Gray had kissed him and Natsu had run off again. Rogue went after him while he stayed with Sting. Koen had kept him at the club longer and Sting went off on his own to get them a table at the restaurant they were going to have dinner at. He left Koen at the club and went to meet up with Sting but he heard a noise and Sting was in trouble, he had been masered and was being attacked. Gray tried to protect him but he was distracted from being tired so he was attacked as well. He was bleeding and he had sent Koen back to the club for help. He had fought with his magic for as long as he could, trying to keep Sting safe while fighting off several attackers. They had gotten in some hits while he was focusing on Sting. He was running out of magic and he had pressed himself against a wall so that they couldn't surprise him from behind. Natsu and Rogue showed up and began to attack the men. They were both furious. Natsu was vicious while you couldn't even see Rogue as he used the shadows to his advantage but someone was coming their way. He tried to warn Natsu but he was too late and Natsu got masered by that girl from the club. He could still somewhat move around though which had surprised Gray until he remembered that Natsu now had a lightning attribute, thanks to eating Laxus' lightning on Tenrou Island. Natsu attacked blindly and missed. Gray saw the girl aim a gun at Natsu and used his last energy to save the man he loved. The girl turned the gun on him but nothing happened. He held on until he knew Natsu was safe. Then he woke up in Fairy Tail and Natsu was gone.

Gray woke up. He began to remember more details as he thought about his dream. It was Friday, a full week since the attack and Natsu was still not back.

'I guess that means he's made his decision', Gray thought bitterly. 'Where does that leave us now?'

He wanted to get out of there, wanted to go home and mourn what would never be. He would never force Natsu to do anything he didn't want but Gray was angyr that Natsu had not had the courage to tell him how he felt, choosing instead to run away once again. Gray was getting very tired of that.

He waited for Porlyusica to come check on him and hoped that she would let him leave. They had been doing some exercises during the week and he had regained all of his balance. His headaches were minimal and his pupils were back to normal. The rest of his physical injuries had already been healed. Now that he had recovered his memories he couldn't think of another reason for her to keep him there. Thankfully she agreed and he was out of there by noon before anyone returned from their jobs. He stopped to buy some quick groceries and headed home.

He didn't cry like he thought he might, he just felt empty and sad. He allowed himself to think about everything that had happened the previous week, choosing to deal with it all at once rather than his preferred method of repression. He figured it would be healthier, as long as they were both members of Fairy Tail he would have to continue crossing paths with Natsu. As much as it hurt at the moment he would rather have Natsu as a friend than not at all. He just hoped that Natsu felt the same way. At least Gray had never told him that he loved him, that probably would have made things more awkward than they already would be. Since he was already miserable he spent the rest of the day catching up on household chores he had been avoiding.

He woke up on Saturday morning with a groan as he remembered that Erza had said he was supposed to meet up with Jason at the guild. The reporter had been waiting for him to be well enough to be able to answer questions about the attack. He had already interviewed everyone else. Gray wasn't in the mood to answer any questions having to do with the Blue Pegasus job but if he tried to get out of it Erza would just find him and drag him there and Jason, as much as he had disliked the magazine article, had gone out of his way to try to help them. He forced himself to get out of bed and get ready for the day. He took a shower and got dressed and made his way over to the guild determined to get the stupid interview over with as quickly as possible. Erza had sat with them listening to his answers and when Gray saw her face he decided to get out of town for a bit. He had no desire to have any additional conversations on the matter. He ordered her a piece of strawberry cake and waited until she was distracted eating it. He pretended to go to the bathroom and then quickly left the guild and made his way to the train station. He headed to the last place he thought anyone would ever look for him.

Bob looked up surprised to have a customer so early in the day.

"Gray? What brings you here?", he asked in surprise, "I would think this was the last place you would want to be."

"Kind of why I'm here." He'd grown to like the Blue Pegasus master during his time at the club.

"How's the boyfriend?"

"He's not.", Gray said drily.

"I'm sorry to hear that.", Bob said honestly, he thought the boys were good together.

"You and me both."

"Have you eaten lunch already?'

Gray shook his head and Bob had him come to the kitchen with him as he prepared a meal for them. They talked for awhile about Gray's recovery and Bob reminisced a bit about his time at Fairy Tail.

Gray looked at the guild master and asked carefully, "Can I ask why you left? It sounds like you really enjoyed it."

Bob considered him as he carried their plates to a booth and got them some beer from the bar. Finally he shrugged and decided there was no harm in telling him.

'Porlyusica would probably kill me if she knew I was giving you alcohol right now", Bob grinned mischievously, "but there's no way I can tell this story without it."

They ate as Bob told Gray his story.

"I did love my time at Fairy Tail. It was a lot of fun and we were a lot like you guys are now. Full of energy and mischief, too powerful and destructive for our own good. We had a great team. Maki, Rob, Yaj, Goldmine, Porlyusica and myself. There was no job too big for us.", he smiled fondly.

"They all knew my orientation and they were very accepting. There was no awkwardness, it was never a problem. Then one day I found myself falling in love with a teammate, it happened almost without my knowledge. It was certainly not my intention but that's love for you, you don't really have any control over who you love. To make matters worse the man I fell in love with was straight. There was no way it was going to happen for me but he wasn't in a relationship and everything moved on as normal. He didn't know how I felt and I had no intention of telling him."

"It went on like that for a few years and the pain and loneliness was bearable because he was alone and when we all went out and he gave me attention I could pretend, you see. I realize now that I should have taken steps to extricate myself from the situation but I was still fairly young and naive. To make matters worse he started dating Porlyusica who was also a very good friend."

Gray tried to imagine anyone dating Porlyusica, she was beautiful even now but her personality was terrifying.

"I can see what you're thinking but she wasn't always like she is now. She was actually rather sweet back then and she was one of my best friends so of course she would share with me details of her relationship. What could I say? Please don't confide in me, I'm in love with your boyfriend.", Bob snorted, "I was happy for them but at the same time I was miserable. I found myself getting short with them while we were on jobs."

"I resigned from the team and began taking solo missions, the longer and harder the better. They continued on without me and that hurt most of all but looking back now what else were they supposed to do? Sometimes some of the other guys would ask me to go on jobs with them for old time's sakes and I would. I finally confessed my feelings for my love to one of them and he told me he had already figured it out. He was the one that suggested I might want to leave because my love and Porlyusica were getting married and things would probably get worse for me before they got any better. I thought about what he said and I took his advice. I traveled for a few months and returned for the wedding. After that I decided to start a guild of my own. A place where any mage could feel welcome even if they did not have a type of magic that would work well with your typical job request. I was tired of fighting by this point you see. That, my dear IceMan, is the sad tale of how Blue Pegasus came to be.", Bob grinned cheekily at Gray.

"I never told him how I felt and after some years I was able to put it all behind me and find a happiness of sorts with someone else. The man who was killed in the attack actually. His name was Stefan and we were together for many years and remained friends long after our relationship was no more."

Gray thought about Bob's story and hoped that it didn't come to that for him. He couldn't imagine his life without Fairy Tail.

"Were you able to stay friends after you left?"

"It took awhile but we were eventually able to rekindle our friendship.", Bob said as he got up. He cleared their table and put the plates back in the kitchen. He moved to the bar and refiled their drinks from the tap. "Now, do you want to regale me with your sad tale?"

"There's not much to tell.", Gray said, "Boy knows other boy for a very long time. Boy takes on a job that has them pretending to be a couple. Boy falls in love with other boy. Other boy runs away any time anything happens that could further their relationship. Boy risks his life to protect other boy, Other boy runs away before the boy wakes up from his head injury. The End. I was just fooling myself that we could be anything more than what we have always been.", Gray said as he finished his second beer.

"Well, you're welcome to stick around for as long as you want. You're always welcome here and if you ever feel it gets to be too much there's always a place for you at Blue Pegasus.", Bob said knowingly.

"Thanks."

Customers and members began to come in to the club and Bob became busy so Gray just hung out and people watched. He talked to a few girls who flirted with him but he found he wasn't ready yet. He was looking at the bottom of his empty cup when Bob gave him another refill and a note. Gray looked up at the guild master in confusion. Bob gave him an encouraging smile so Gray looked down at the note and read it, His eyes widened in disbelief.

Found a boyfriend yet, Ice Princess?

Gray looked around for Natsu but didn't see him anywhere. No one else called him that though. He decided to reply the same way as last time.

Sadly no. Are you offering?

He handed his reply to Bob and watched as he left the bar with it. He shrugged and drank some of his beer. He anxiously waited for Bob to return with a reply but when the guild master returned he was empty handed. Gray sighed and continued to drink his beer. He was so pathetic for allowing himself to get his hopes up.

He felt a warmth beside him and looked up to see a very nervous looking Natsu holding his response in his hand. He dropped it on the bar like it could bite at any second. Gray looked down to read it,

Yes

Gray looked back at Natsu who had turned a rather interesting shade of red. The ice mage was very confused.

"I don't understand, you ran away again."

"I didn't run away, Gray. It was my birthday, I had somewhere I needed to be and you hadn't woken up yet.", Natsu said.

"How did you find me?", Gray asked.

"I looked for you everywhere. After I talked to Erza I realized that you didn't want to be found and I figured you would go to the last place that anyone would look for you so I came here and I saw you at the bar. I was too nervous to talk to you at first so Bob suggested I try the note thing again."

Gray grinned, they really did know each other entirely too well.

"Look, I'll be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing but if you still want me I would like to give this a try because I don't think I want to go back to the way things were.", Natsu looked at Gray his eyes big and earnest.

Gray found he couldn't stop smiling, "Are you sure about this?"

Natsu smiled at Gray and leaned in to kiss him. Gray felt Natsu's lips on his and kissed him back. They separated and smiled at each other.

"I'm not sure what I'm doing either ", Gray told Natsu, "but we can figure it out together."

"So, I bumped into Sting and Rogue on the way here. It seems they were trying to go to that restaurant again and they wanted to know if you wanted to go on a double date. For real this time."

Gray laughed, "I suppose we owe it to them, since we almost got Sting killed last time."

Natsu scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, well there's that, but next date we go on I want you all to myself."

Gray nodded, "I'd like that too."

"He said yes!", Natsu said loudly.

Sting and Rogue came out of one of the private rooms and a loud pop could be heard coming from the bar behind them. Bob had opened a bottle of champagne and poured the bubbling liquid into five flutes. All five men grabbed one and drank to celebrate the new couple. As their friends wished them luck on their new adventure Gray snorted as he was hit by a thought.

"What's so funny, Ice Block?", Natsu asked him.

"I never thought you'd be right.", Gray said,

"I'm often right,", Natsu smirked, "What was I right about?"

"Gay, it does mean happy."

Natsu and Gray both smiled and kissed again before intertwining their fingers and joining the Twin Dragons on their quest to put a poor unsuspecting all you can eat restaurant out of business. Sting walked hand in hand with his beloved, his mind already full of future plans for the foursome.

Flashback

Natsu and Happy arrived at their destination. A few years back, on one of his trips to find Igneel Natsu had found what he was pretty sure was the cave he used to live in with his dragon father hidden among a range of mountains. Since his discovery, every year he made the two day pilgrimage to spend his birthday, which was really the anniversary of when Igneel had found him, there. It made him feel closer to Igneel somehow.

"Hi Igneel", Natsu said nervously, "It's that time again, I'm another year older. I'm sorry I didn't come for awhile but I was sort of stuck on an island for the last six years. A lot has happened since I got back.

Natsu continued talking excitedly, telling Igneel about everything that had happened since he had returned from Tenrou Island, Happy listened quietly as he cuddled with his dragon slayer. Among other things he told Igneel about opening his second origin, the Grand Magic Games, meeting Sting and Rogue, and fighting alongside Atlas. He talked for hours until there was only one thing left for him to tell his father.

"That brings me to the other reason I'm here.", he said with some sadness, "I'm sorry, but I can't look for you anymore. I don't know why you left me, maybe I'll never know. I do know that you loved me and if you had to go it must have been important.

"I can't keep living in the past. I have to let you go so I can start moving forward like the others.

I think I might be in love and I'm scared because he might leave me too, but I have to try because I don't want to be the child who is afraid of being abandoned forever. You taught me to be strong and to look to the future and that's exactly what I'm going to do.

"Maybe someday you'll find me, sometimes it feels like you're so close.", Natsu said with frustration, "But even if you never do, I want to thank you. Thank you for finding me and taking care of me, for teaching me magic and most of all for loving me when no one else did. I love you, Dad. A part of you will always live inside me. I only wish I could have seen you one more time."

Tears flowed freely down his cheeks, but he didn't mind. He had not expected letting go would be easy. He had many good memories, and he spent a while in silence, just reminiscing. After all, a boy and his dragon could get into a lot of mischief! When he was ok to talk again he shared a few of those stories with Happy, and they laughed together in easy camaraderie before snuggling into Natsu's bedroll and falling asleep. They would leave early in the morning to get back to Fairy Tail, it was time to talk to Gray, assuming he had already woken up. Natsu didn't know what his future held but even if things didn't work out with Gray he knew that letting go of Igneel was the right thing to do. He had to start living his life.

End Flashback

THE END

A/N I don't know if I will ever manage to write another story that excites people as much this one seemed to but I'm glad I managed it at least once. This story has been such a positive experience for me. I am humbled by all the attention it received. Thank you so much for all your comments, reviews, follows, favorites and kudos. This story was even able to help me through one of the saddest experiences in my life, the loss of my beloved cat Ellie.

I no longer remember where the idea for this story came from I just know that it was just supposed to be a silly little thing with not much thought given to the mission aspect at all but somehow with all your interest it forced me to get my act together and organize my thoughts well enough to turn it from a collection of gags to an actual story. I hope that I did my job well and you derived some enjoyment from reading it. Please let me know what you thought. I am still learning my way around writing stories and would like to know what you liked and what I could have done better. If you find you like my writing my next project will be the second part of my long fic To Kill A Dragon.