Summer was in full force when we arrived, as the sun battered the city with unrelenting rays of heat and light. Everyone that we passed was wearing tank-tops and shorts or skirts or summer dresses. Stepping onto the rocky path that made the road that lead in and out of the town's main entrance. Quickly stepping to the side of the road, to let a magic four-wheeler past, before walking back to the middle of the road.

Stretching out a knot, as I peered up at the brilliantly, still-vibrant blue sky and grinned in glee as I counted a total of 4 clouds in the sky and about 3 wispy clouds. No rain would come for at least a couple days. Bending back to normal, I walked after my teammate, as we both let our tension fall into the ground as we relaxed at being back home again.

Even though, the sun was already setting, it was still warm enough for Gray to be walking around shirtless, and still sweating. He was panting slightly, obviously feeling less than comfortable in the summer heat. Not that I blame him, he had trained in the cold and he was an Ice Mage. He had always preferred winter to summer.

As the evening fell upon the city, the shadows that the buildings were creating became increasingly elongated, providing shelter for the boiling citizens. I gently grabbed Gray's arm, and began to drag him into the shadows, with a gentle smile on my face as he stumbled after me, startled at our sudden change of course. The shadows made the world cooler, and Gray's body shook off even more tension, greatly appreciating the cooler temperature.

"...Good thinking, Flamebrain." He smiled, after a pant and sweat continued to rain down his forehead.

"Are you okay? You're sweating quite a lot." I frowned, pressing a hand against his cheeks, and my frown deepened at his far too warm skin. "Do you want to go into a store for five minutes or something?"

"No, I'm...fine, no need to worry...we're almost...there." He panted out, reaching up and removing my hand from his arm. Just when I thought he'd drop my hand, he took it in his own and offered a reassuring smile.

"That's when I worry the most." I sighed, with a reassured smile, as we resumed down the street towards the guild, me pulling Gray closer, feeling even safer and more at ease from the close vicinity we shared.

"We'll just go to the guild, pop in to say hi, and then we can go home." Gray explained, relaxing also. "And then you can be all protective of me, okay, Flamebrain?"

"There is no way that it will just be a quick 'hi', you know, that, right?" I countered, raising a playful eyebrow with a smirk accompanying it. "I bet you we'll be there for at least two hours."

"Nah, at most one hour." The raven-haired man argued, with an equally as laid-back smirk pasted on his face.

"Two hours." I shook my head.

"One hour." Gray replied, the fire in his voice growing with each syllable.

"Two hours."

"One hour."

"Two hours."

"One hour."

"Two hours."

"Two hours."

"One hour."

"Okay, have it your way Flamebrain." He smirked. I paused for a second, thinking back over our split-second argument to figure out what he meant...

"Hey!"

Pushing open the grand, big doors that let us inside the guild, we waved a hello to our guild mates. Dropping Gray's hand, I made my way – almost instinctively – over to the bar, where Lucy, Happy and Mira were. Happy leapt into my arms, snuggling against my chest in a furry welcome. Lucy grinned and waved a quick hello, picking up on my satisfaction.

"So...how did the mission go?" She prided, also picking up on my need to gloat over mine and Gray's victory. "...Which mission did you take again?"

"We took the one where we had to go into a huge forest, to take down a group of bandits and dark guild that had joined forces." I explained. "It was much less trouble than the mayor of the town lead us to believe, even with the added danger. They somehow had one of the books of Zeref, and threatened to open it if we did anything silly. We decided to back off then, and we waited for about a day, before going back, this time with a plan of ambush."

"You make it sound so much cooler than it actually was, Flamebrain." Gray interrupted. "We went back that fast, because we realized that we couldn't just leave idiots with a book of Zeref."

"We went back, under the cover of darkness, so we could maintain our element of surprise for longer." I interrupted him, so I could finish telling them my story. "There was a small group that had drifted away from the main group, to take a cigarette break. Gray froze them before they could tell what was happening, and then he put pressure on the ice to knock them out, so we could keep being stealthy."

"No, no, no! Natsu, you just punched them when they weren't watching." Gray interrupted, again. "I didn't use my ice, heck I didn't even know they were there until you came back!"

"Shush! I'm telling a story." I told him patronizingly.

"Well, you're telling it wrong." He rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, after that, we went back to the main group. I circled around to the other side and created a distraction with my fire, and drew even more away from the main guy with the book. I took on most the people, whilst Gray took on the guy who was holding the book. Because he's got his Devil Slayer Magic, we figured that he'd be the best choice if he decided to unleash the demon."

"Quickly, I realized that it actually wasn't a book of Zeref, which sucked for the guy, because he got his *ss handed to him pretty quickly." Gray continued.

"You're ruining my story." I complained to him.

"You weren't there for that battle, I'm just saying what happened with me." He defended.

"Still! It's my story!" I whined, puffing up my cheeks sassily.

"Fine..." He sighed, and a kind of 'what am I going to do with you' look passed over his face, as he leaned back to watch me tell the rest of the story.

"So, we defeated the group, the guys I fought were so easy. Almost disappointingly easy. I used my fire once throughout the entire fight, it was cr*p fight." I grumbled, in distaste for the battle. "But! Because of that, we got all of our reward and 2,000 extra!"

"So, 180,000J each isn't that bad." Gray grinned.

But I was no longer interested in the mission. After what I just saw, the mission was the last thing on my mind. It could have been there...and it could have been entirely my imagination... But, for a second. Just one second. One tiny, split second, I caught a glimpse of Gray's face. And for that mere heartbeat, a depressed, and unbearably painful expression had clouded Gray's features.

And now I was staring at him. I studied every inch of his face, trying to work out if what I thought I saw was real, or if I was just that tired.

"What?" Gray asked, looking at me with confusion now in the place of that pained look. But my mind was still focused on what it had spotted. Why was Gray wearing such an expression? What could have caused him to look so sad? Is it nearing an anniversary? No. Did I do something? Because I wanted to tell the story? Because we nearly - but didn't actually - run into another one of Zeref's demons? Was he thinking of Deliora? Of Ur? His parents? Why did he look so...not like Gray? "What?!" He repeated, jabbing me in the arm to snap me out of my daze.

As he did so, I frowned and bit the inside of my mouth, I was still partially in my daze. Because the expression that I had caught him wearing was so painful, and so out of place on the Ice Mage's face, that even though it survived for a mere heartbeat, it would be permanently burned into my memory.

"Are you okay?" I breathed, so quietly that even that seemed like something my mind could've cooked up.

"Huh? Me? Where did that come from?" He titled his head to the side, in adorably confused gesture. "Umm...I'm fine...why?"

But I still couldn't quite focus on Gray, that expression was now haunting my mind, and I didn't know if I'd ever forget it.