"Sometimes we just need to tell someone what is really going on inside. Sometimes that's all it takes to begin our healing."
― S. C. Lourie

Although Gray's mind was made up, he still waited. He felt it was not fair to have pushed Natsu away before, only to embrace him the very next day. He wanted to show that he really had thought about it. It just took less time to figure things out than he figured.

He did not wait long, though. After cleaning up, he decided that he needed to get out of Magnolia. He walked to the train station and purchased a ticket for the next morning. Then he went home, made something to eat, and stayed in for the day. He tried not to think about this too much. If he thought about it, he might convince himself otherwise. He went to bed early, but he laid in bed staring up at the ceiling, wishing the summer sun would set sooner. Instead, the light lingered, a purple glow oozed through his curtains, and some nearby tavern blasted music. He closed his eyes to the gloaming and let the music send him to sleep.

In his dream was the dragon prince again, but now they were in a bare room. There was a long table between them, the kind seen in classic depictions of royalty at dinner. A candelabra burned in front of the half-dragon, lighting up his pink hair. A bucket of ice with an unopened bottle of champagne sat in front of Gray. They gazed at each other from opposite ends of the massive table. It felt like they spent half the night staring at one another in silence. A clock ticked somewhere, and as the hours passed the ticking got louder, heavier, more ominous.

"Well," Natsu finally spoke. His voice shocked Gray out of the pounding tick-tock noise. The narrow green eyes turned toward the bottle of champagne, then back up at him. "Aren't you going to open it?"

Gray looked at the ice bucket. Open it. Champagne to celebrate. He had not opened the bottle yet. It sat there, sweating, waiting for the party, toasting to happiness in the future. Waiting. It was just the two of them now, no icy castle or summery sunflower fields, but now it felt like they were further apart than ever.

Staring in hesitation, Gray woke up to find it already morning.

Lyon and Jura were in the midst of discussing the results of Toby's last mission—he was "almost as bad as Natsu" according to Lyon—when Gray raced through the doors of Lamia Scale.

"Lyon! I need to talk with you," he bellowed out, almost crashing into two other guild members.

The elder Ice-Make wizard looked first to the Wizard Saint. Jura tucked his hands into his sleeves and gave a passive nod. His face said that matters could wait, family always came first, and he knew this young man was the closest thing to family that Lyon had. All members of Lamia Scale were in silent debt to Gray; they all knew it was his positive influence that brought a strong wizard like Lyon to their guild.

The two foster brothers stepped out into the summer heat. The sun blazed, and here they did not have the breeze off the bay like in Magnolia. Instantly and in synchronism, they both tossed their shirts off.

"This must be serious," Lyon observed, walking slowly along a stone path behind the guild. "You're out of breath."

"I'm in love," Gray blurted out.

Lyon stared at him and blinked in surprise. Gray, in love? "With Juvia?"

"Um ... no. With ... well, with..." It was harder to admit than he thought. "I ... I need a second opinion. I told you about my ... um ... dilemma with ... issues."

Lyon chuckled at his awkwardness. "You mean about having feelings for a man. I was wondering how that was progressing."

"Uh ... y-yeah, that." Gray glanced around suspiciously, but they were in a garden behind Lamia Scale's guild. The arbor they strolled through was secluded with a stretched vine-covered pergola giving them privacy. It was so quiet, only birdsong and rustling leaves, they would be able to hear anyone approaching. "I thought about it a lot, and I might be ... no," he whispered, and he said again with firm decisiveness. "I'm in love." As soon as he declared it, he laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "It's crazy to say it out loud."

Lyon patted Gray's upper arm. "Good for you. So, who is this lucky boyfriend of yours?" he pressed eagerly.

"Oh! Uh, I haven't asked him out yet."

"They why are you talking with me?" Lyon snapped. "Seriously, man up and confess to this guy."

"I did."

"You d- ... oh," he pouted in sympathy. "Did he turn you down? I'm so sorry, Gray."

"N-no! He feels the same."

Lyon lifted an eyebrow. "That's good. So what the hell is the problem?"

Gray sighed in anguish. "I am. I held back. I wasn't sure what I wanted. Lyon, have you noticed anything ... strange about me?"

"I noticed you're an immature idiot years ago."

"I mean about girls. With relationships in general. I've never been in love. I've been attracted to lots of girls, but never love. With Natsu, I'm not physically attracted, per say, but whenever I see him..."

"Wait, what?" Lyon shouted so loudly, some birds in the arbor flew away. "Natsu? Natsu Dragneel? Salamander? The Fire Dragon Slayer? Son of Igneel the Flame Dragon King? The man you've called flame-brain since the first time I met him? The one you hate, who fights you all the time, and you two use any excuse to kick each other's butts? Him?"

"Um ... y-yeah," Gray admitted. "It's crazy, right?"

Lyon stared at him for almost half a minute. Then he folded his arms pensively. "Not crazy. Unexpected, though. I was in a debate between Loke and Freed, since you said it was a friend of yours. Still, with Natsu ... I had a weird feeling about him. He paid a little too much attention to you lately. Still, I didn't think it was this serious. It's surprising..."

"That's an understatement," Gray muttered.

"But perhaps I should say, about damn time!" he laughed softly. "So, are you sure he loves you?"

"Yeah, he confessed."

"And you confessed to him?"

Gray paused. "Uh ... well, I told him I liked him."

"So you're dating?"

Gray cringed down a little. "No. I said I needed time, and I thought I should tell you first."

"Idiot! Are you really that stupid? Don't come back here and talk to me about this until you do something about it. Make it official. Ask him out. Sheesh, why are you even talking to me when you should be talking to the one you love and telling him how you feel?"

"That's the problem," Gray yelled in frustration. "I'm not attracted to him as a man, but I love him as a person. How is that even possible?"

Lyon stared for a long time before muttering, "You really are a child."

"Shut up!" Gray screamed, shaking with his emotions. They came up to some stone benches tucked amidst the greenery, and Gray collapsed down onto one, folding his hands between his knees and hunching over. The dappled light filtering through the arbor played over his anguished brow as he glared down at a line of ants. "Look, this is serious, maybe the most serious thing in my life, and if you're not going to help me then I'll ask someone else."

Lyon sighed, but he also felt a bit honored that Gray had turned to him. He took a seat beside his foster brother, his back straight in opposition to Gray's slouched spine. "So, you're not physically attracted, but you're emotionally attracted. And sexually?"

Gray blushed in embarrassment. "Y-yeah, I guess so."

"You've fantasized about having sex with him?"

"So what if I have?" he snapped defensively. Lyon arched an eyebrow. "S-sorry. It's still weird for me, okay? Hey, um, have you ever heard of demisexual?"

"Someone who doesn't experience sexual attraction unless they first form an emotional bond with the other person. That's not really you. You find ladies attractive and sleep with them at random. Demiromantic, maybe."

"And that is?" he asked.

"You only fall romantically in love after getting to know a person on a deep emotional level. It explains why you've never fallen in love before now. You never let your girlfriends get close enough to you."

Gray rubbed his chin as he thought about it. "And when I would date friends, I never wanted sex. I knew in my heart that I wasn't in love and didn't want to hurt them. So why would I want sex with Natsu when I've never liked guys before in my life?"

"Easy," Lyon shrugged. "You fell romantically in love first."

"But still, I'm not really attracted to Natsu. That's what worries me," Gray confessed. "You're supposed to see someone you like and think they're sexy, right?"

"Not necessarily. If that was true, many men would never get laid."

"I always have," Gray insisted.

"No, you've only fucked women who you found to be attractive."

"I guess you have a point," he conceded. "Still, I look at him and I don't think he has a hot body, sexy abs, or pretty hair. I'm not attracted that way. I've never looked at any men and thought they were sexy."

Lyon reached up to a fruit hanging from the pergola vines and pluck it off. "Love is often strongest when it's not based purely on physical appearance."

Gray grumbled to the side, "Says the man who fell for Juvia at first sight."

Lyon ignored his remark and continued to turn the fruit around in his hands. "Your romantic attraction bypassed your up-to-now heterosexual attractions. You could say you fell in love with his brains and not his body."

"Natsu has ash for brains," Gray said immediately, almost as an instinct. He fell silent, feeling slightly guilty for insulting Natsu, although it was something he had done since the first day they met. "Does ... does this make me ... I dunno ... bisexual or something?"

"Bi-curious, maybe. You're still not sure, right?"

"I ... I think ... well, I love him. Maybe. Pretty sure."

Lyon chuckled at how indecisive he still sounded. "Try it out. You may be bisexual even though you don't find men to be sexually attractive. That could be why you never fell in love with a man before now. Your demiromantic side prevented you from feeling that attraction, since you would have to fall in love with a man emotionally before you felt attraction sexually. As you fall deeper in love, perhaps you'll also find Natsu to be attractive. If not, there's nothing wrong with that."

"I don't want him to feel insulted though," Gray insisted. "What if he asks if he looks pretty in a new shirt?"

Lyon arched an eyebrow. "I don't think men ask those sorts of questions."

"He might!" Gray shouted. "How can I be his boyfriend if I don't actually find him attractive?" He yanked at his hair with a low groan. "Seriously, it should not be this confusing!"

Lyon bit into the fruit. "Attraction for you seems to be a real gray area, nothing black and white. Since Natsu is your first love, it's hard to say what you are, so stop trying to label everything. You love him, he loves you, leave it at that for now and see where things go."

"But what if I fuck it all up?" Gray whispered, glaring down at the stone path. "I don't want to mess things up with him."

Lyon glanced sideways at him with a proud smile. "That alone says a lot about your feelings, doesn't it?"

Gray realized he had a point. He was over-thinking everything because he really wanted this to work. That showed how deeply he felt for Natsu.

Lyon took another bite and looked at the juice dripping from the fruit. "Love is complex; no single thing triggers it. Appearances, attitudes, acts of kindness. Sometimes we can't pinpoint what did it, or when it happened. Gradually over time, it's a culmination of everything about them that does it, and all those elements compact together like snowflakes rolled into a snowball. They grow until the snowball becomes a boulder, and over time they grow stronger, deeper, more powerful, until you're smacked with the avalanche-like realization that you're in love."

Gray smiled passively. Lyon always knew how to phrase things in a way he understood.

"Thanks. So you don't think I'm losing my mind, right?"

"I think you lost it back when we were kids," Lyon smirked playfully. "As for this matter, you're different from average people, but you should be used to that, considering you're a pupil of Ur."

"That's true. You're missing your shirt, idiot."

"I'm wondering where the hell your pants went, pervert."

Gray looked down. "Crap! When did that happen?" He saw the trousers along the path they had walked, but he did not recall removing them. "Thanks, Lyon. Really. I wanted to make sure it wasn't a stupid idea."

Lyon glared at him. "If I said it was, would that convince you not to ask him out?"

Gray thought seriously about it. "Probably not."

"Good! If you said yes, I'd tell you to forget it. If what your friends say can affect your heart that easily, you don't deserve that person at all. If every person in the world goes against you, and you still stay firm to your heart, then you really are in love. You're here talking to me because you're a coward and don't have the balls to talk to him."

"Hey!" Gray shouted. "I am not a coward. I just thought I'd tell my brother first. I wanted you to be the first to know."

"Idiot! Tell me after it's official. You don't need my blessing." He folded his arms and looked away stubbornly. "I'm not Natsu's future mother-in-law. Sheesh!"

Gray smirked teasingly. "No, but you could be his future brother-in-law."

Lyon felt a shiver tingle his arms. "That's a harrowing thought!"

Gray laughed and raised to his feet. "Thanks again. I'm actually really relieved that you approve."

"Who says I do?" stated Lyon. "I think he's an idiot, and I think you need to be careful that you don't get burned. Still, if he makes you this stupidly happy, then who am I to say if it's a good or bad idea? It's what you both want, and that's all that matters in the end. So get the hell out of here and tell that guy how you feel."

Gray nodded, and he left back the way he came, picking up his clothes as he left.

"That asshole," Lyon sighed. "I've never seen him this messed up over someone. It really must be love. Lucky bastard. And that means," Lyon grinned to himself, "Juvia is totally free!"