Note: Yeah, I don't really have much to say about this part. It is what it is. *shrugs*

Part 5

Natsu was inhaling his lunch when Levy came bursting into the guild. Her breaths came in panting gasps as she staggered to a stop. Jet and Droy were on their feet at once, rushing over and asking if she was alright, but she waved them off and straightened up.

"The west side of Magnolia is on fire," she wheezed. "Gajeel stayed behind to help, but they need everyone they can get over there. Natsu, Juvia… Anyone who can help contain the fire and get everyone out of harm's way."

Natsu cast a longing glance at the remainder of his food, but it looked like he would be getting a free meal soon enough. Fire, huh?

"I'm coming." He stood and threw a sidelong look at Gray. "You wanna stay here, ice block?"

Gray had gone still, shoulders hunched, but now he scowled at Natsu. "Of course not. I'm not a child."

Happy and the girls exchanged a look but didn't comment. Erza quickly took charge of their group, and the team rushed out into the streets as the rest of the guild mobilized and took off.

Natsu could taste the smoke in the air, and they could all see the flames crackling and leaping towards the sky in the distance after they'd run only a few streets over. Not good. It was a big fire, and most of western Magnolia was residential.

He slid a sideways glance at Gray, who was easily keeping up despite his reluctance to approach the conflagration. His gaze was focused on the fire dancing along the skyline, his jaw tight and face set in hard lines. It could be taken as run-of-the-mill determination, but Natsu recognized it as the expression Gray wore when he was scared and didn't want to do something but would force himself to do it in order to prove something to himself.

The expression he often wore before pushing himself too hard and breaking. Natsu didn't think this was a good idea. Gray had made remarkable progress over the past few months, but this was on a whole new level and could easily backfire.

Natsu dropped back a pace and grabbed Gray's arm to slow him while Happy and the girls raced ahead. "Are you going to be okay with this?"

Gray shot a sharp look at the rest of the team, but they were too focused to notice. "Of course. This is our city, our guild, and I'm just as responsible for their protection as any of the rest of you."

"Just…be careful."

Gray waved him off with a scoff that didn't quite cover his nerves, and broke free to rejoin the rest of the team. Natsu sighed but conceded. Gray was right and would always do his best despite his scars. Natsu had to respect that.

"Natsu!" Erza barked as they ran up on the inferno and skidded to a stop. "Get rid of the fire over there. See how it's about to jump to that row of houses? We need a firebreak to stop it from spreading, and then you can work your way in to extinguish the fire from the outside in. The rest of us will work on putting out what we can and finding anyone who's trapped."

Natsu nodded, shot one last look at Gray, and rushed off to the indicated houses with Happy trailing behind. The smoke was thick and black and clogged his throat, but he squinted past the haze and reached for the flames—beautiful, deadly flames—creating it. They leapt from building to building, reaching ever higher as they consumed the wood and fuel in their path.

Natsu sucked in a deep breath and called the flames, swallowing them down. They curled through his body and twined around his own magic, and he grinned and swiped the back of his hand across his mouth. There was a lot of fire to eat today.

"Hurry," Happy urged. "It's spreading really fast."

"I got this."

Natsu worked his way forward, pushing the flames back and seizing them as his own. Civilians escaped from burning buildings and ran for safety, while mages and more than a handful of brave non-mages worked tirelessly to put out the fire and get everyone out of its reach. Natsu spotted Juvia dumping water on the blaze off in the distance, and one time glimpsed flames frozen in crystalline tongues before he moved farther away from the team. That made him feel good. Gray was fighting.

It could have taken minutes or hours, but they were taming this beast. Natsu found a pocket of frightened people huddled close together in an alley between houses as the flames closed in around them, and freed them to run for safety.

"It's going well," Happy said. "If you just clean up this side right–"

"Natsu!" Lucy yelled.

Natsu's head jerked around at the sound of her voice, his battle with the flames forgotten. She sounded…desperate, even over the sounds of chaos permeating the air.

"What is it?" Happy asked.

"Lucy is calling me. Come on."

Natsu whirled about and ran back towards where he had left the others, towards the sound of Lucy's voice as she called for him again. He leaped over charred debris and kicked up clouds of ash as he dashed through the now fire-free expanse of the neighborhood.

"Natsu!" Erza, this time.

Natsu skidded around the corner, and heat blasted his face like a physical thing. The fire, though weakened, still raged along the row of houses directly facing them. Lucy and Erza stood in front of one, fear written across their faces.

"Forget it," Erza said. "We can't wait for him. I'm going in."

"You can't!" Lucy squeaked. "It's too big. You're going to get trapped inside."

"Well, it's better than nothing."

"I'm here." Worry gripped Natsu's heart as he took stock of the situation…and of who was missing. "Where's Gray?"

The girls turned to him with identical expressions of relief and worry.

"Thank goodness," Lucy sighed.

"He's in there." Erza pointed at the burning house, her face grim.

"Why would he go in there?" Natsu growled, not quite believing it. "It's hard enough to get him within twenty feet."

"There was someone trapped up on the second floor." The lines on Erza's face deepened. "I was going to go after her, but Gray said he'd do it because he could protect her with his ice. He got her out through the window and we took care of it from there, but he disappeared and hasn't come back out."

"Natsu," Lucy pleaded tearfully, "you have to get him out."

Natsu stared in horror at the burning house. Flames licked at every inch, and it creaked and groaned as the fire ate through it. Gray, who could barely stand to get within a few feet of a small flame, had gone in there?

No, no, this was not going to happen again.

Natsu charged past the girls without a second look, darting through the open doorway and its curtain of flames. He squinted against the brightness searing his retinas as the fire crackled and danced through every room and up every wall.

He ran straight for the staircase. Gray had gone to the second floor, and Natsu would start in the room he'd been seen in last. He had to pause at the top to get his bearings and determine which room corresponded to the window Erza had indicated, but then rushed through flames and over groaning floors to get at it.

"Gray!" he yelled, pitching his voice to be heard over the roaring of the flames. "Gray, where are you?"

At first, nothing but the hungry fire replied. But then, so faint that even Natsu's keen hearing almost missed it over the static, a small voice said, "Here."

Natsu lunged through the doorway, but he didn't see Gray. The flames burned hot and hungry around the open window on the opposite wall, long since finished with the curtains and now sinking their teeth into the walls with gusto. The bed and table were quickly being reduced to ash, and fire munched at the rugs thrown across the wooden floors and nibbled at the boards.

He saw fire everywhere he looked, but no Gray. He ducked around the side of an old armoire burning like a torch and finally spotted his friend backed into the corner, not visible from the doorway. The flames were creeping closer, slowly circling him in.

Gray stood frozen, eyes wide with terror and arms wrapped about himself as he huddled as far back in the corner as he could go. Every muscle was held so taut that it trembled. It was as if he'd been overwhelmed and couldn't even think to fight his way out now that the person he'd thrown everything away to save was no longer here to fight for. A fear strong enough to short-circuit the survival instincts and override the normal panic response of fight or flight might as well be stronger than life itself.

Natsu raced right across a burning rug, heedless of the heat pressing in all around, and skidded to a stop. He wrapped an arm around Gray and pulled him firmly to his chest, a barrier against the fire and the fear.

"I've got you," he said roughly. "You're gonna be okay. I'll get you out."

A hand fisted in Natsu's shirt. Gray turned his face inward, his breaths harsh and fast and panicked against Natsu's chest. Hell, Natsu knew he shouldn't have let the ice mage out of his sight. He shouldn't have assumed Gray would stay safe on the sidelines just because he was afraid.

He sucked in a deep lungful of fire, and started devouring the flames all around them to create a safe passage back out. Heat seared his throat and twined around his own magic, before gentling as he took control. He opened his mouth to pull in another breath, but Gray released him suddenly and faced the fire once more. His hands jabbed and slashed at the air, and a chilly blast howled through the room and froze the flames into icy stalagmites of brilliant yellow and orange and red.

Natsu blinked at the stunning spectacle in disbelief. "Wow…"

Gray's exhale was shaky and his entire body was still trembling like a leaf in the wind. He darted a glance at Natsu, eyes wide and dark and frightened. But even if he was still terrified out of his mind, even if he had frozen and given up before, he had fought back now.

"Pretty badass." Natsu gave him a toothy smile despite his jangling nerves. "See, you can do it. You're stronger than you think. And I'm not going to let anything happen. Come on, let's get you out of here."

Gray blinked once, twice, nodded, and inched closer. Natsu slid an arm around him again and they stumbled for the door, ducking around the dying echoes of flames trapped in their icy cages. The floor creaked and groaned dangerously under their feet, and the hissing and spitting of the fire still raging outside the room filtered through the doorway. Time to get out before something went wrong or the place came down on their heads.

Natsu sucked up lungfuls of fire and Gray froze anything that got too close, and together they fought their way through the inferno, down the stairs, and out the front door.

They staggered a few paces down the walk, and Gray collapsed against Natsu as his knees finally gave out. Natsu grunted under his weight, but supported him while he gasped and shook.

"Gray!" Lucy cried. "Are you alright?"

Happy and the girls rushed over to fuss, while Gray coughed and trembled and didn't make eye contact with anyone.

"You did it, Natsu," Happy said, plopping onto the dragon slayer's head.

"You were brave to go in there." Erza brushed at Gray's hair tenderly, ash flaking away and drifting to the ground under her fingertips. "I wasn't sure you'd be coming out here at all, much less actually running into a fire."

"I guess your experiments must have worked after all," Lucy said, pride warring with relief in her eyes. "Although you shouldn't have gone in there alone!"

Gray's head snapped up, bleary eyes sharpening back into focus. "What?"

Erza arched an eyebrow. "Surely, you didn't really think we wouldn't notice that something was going on with you two? We might not know the details, but you guys have been running around in secret playing with fire for months since last time."

Color crept across Gray's too-pale face.

Natsu's arm tightened around Gray convulsively as he gaped at their friends. "Whoa," he said, stunned. "I didn't realize you figured it out."

Happy rolled his eyes. "We aren't that stupid."

"Look," said Lucy. Ignoring the revelation everyone else found so riveting, she took Gray's chin in her hand and gently guided his gaze to the side. "There she is. You saved her."

A petite, blonde-haired woman huddled with a cluster of other civilians as they watched their homes burn from the relative safety of a fire-free zone several yards back. When she saw them looking, the woman smiled a little shakily and waved. Gray swallowed and pulled one hand away from Natsu's arm to give a tiny wave back.

"Things are starting to die down," Happy said. "This seems like the last real problem area, and now it's mostly cleanup."

Natsu huffed out a breath. "Right. We should help with that. Gray, you should head home and get some rest."

"What?" Gray pulled away, swaying slightly before regaining his feet. Despite his trembling, his scowl was fierce. "I can–"

"Nope, I'm cutting you off," Natsu said firmly. "I know you can, but you're going to keep going until you drop again. Go home."

"You can't just–"

"I can and I will. Trust me on this one. It's my job to stop you when you're pushing yourself to the breaking point. You did good today. Now get some rest and let us finish with the cleanup. Happy, go with him, will you?"

Gray looked away, nostrils flaring. "I don't need a babysitter," he said sulkily, but he was no longer protesting the order.

"No, but it's nice to have company." Natsu sobered further as his eyes traced the burns along Gray's arms. There weren't that many, they weren't nearly as bad as last time, but each one could be disastrous. "Maybe you can find Wendy along the way."

Gray shook his head and turned away. "There are people who got burned worse, and she'll be busy. I'm fine."

"But–"

"Stop mother-henning me. Come on, Happy."

Natsu sighed as Gray and Happy wove their way through the charred ruins and disappeared from view. Every burn felt like a failure to protect Gray, and he was worried that throwing him in the deep end could prove a setback to all the progress they'd made through their baby steps. But that was something to address after Gray had gotten some rest and calmed down.

"It's good to see you looking out for him," Erza said.

He looked back over with a frown. "You knew we were doing therapy and didn't say anything?"

The girls exchanged a long look before Lucy said, "You seemed to have it under control, and it wasn't like you or Gray came to us."

"And he has a habit of shutting down if you pry where he doesn't want you looking," Erza added with a shrug. "He went to you, and if it helped him work through some things and you work through some of your guilt… Well, that seemed like something you should do together, without our interference.

"Now, let's finish things up here."

Natsu shook his head in something halfway between disbelief and wonder. Their friends… Well, he knew better than to underestimate them again. But maybe he shouldn't be so surprised. Even when it felt like he was doing it alone or it felt like just him and Gray against the world, they had a whole team—a whole family—behind them every step of the way.

They spent the next few hours putting out the last of the fires and helping with the aftermath. Fires were infamous for smoldering in secret and rekindling long after everyone thought it was safe to breathe again, and Natsu wandered the entire neighborhood to check for any sign that it wasn't over. He put out any embers he found before rejoining the girls and the rest of the guild to make sure all the victims got any necessary medical attention and help them find any missing family or friends.

A small contingent of mages worked with the local authorities to make temporary housing arrangements for the displaced who had nowhere else to go, and the cleanup and rebuilding of the neighborhood would undoubtedly take weeks or months. A few houses at the edge of the disaster zone could probably be saved, but half the neighborhood had been reduced to charred debris and cinders. Many of the houses clinging stubbornly to the last vestiges of life, looming like broken, blackened skeletons on their last legs, would have to be torn down and rebuilt.

It would be a long and tiring process, one that Natsu suspected he and the guild would be involved in. But for today, he had done all he could do.

He was exhausted by the time he finally escaped. Dusk was just dusting the horizon with streaks of purple and orange as he dragged himself over to Gray's apartment. When he knocked on the door, it was Happy who answered.

Natsu's eyebrow jumped upward. "Where's Gray?"

"Resting." Happy slipped outside and shut the door behind him with a soft click. "He was pretty freaked out for a while, but he finally started calming down." He grinned smugly. "He let me cuddle with him."

Natsu snorted loudly at his friend's satisfaction. After casting one last look at the apartment's darkened windows, he conceded defeat and headed for home. He could talk to Gray later. As it was, Gray was worked up and Natsu was exhausted. Besides, the best talk was the kind that was postponed for as long as humanly possible and then downgraded to a flurry of insults and fists with maybe the lightest handful of words peppered in.

Natsu was glad of the reprieve, even if he was still a little concerned. He wouldn't mind some sleep. He flopped over onto the couch as soon as he stumbled into the house, too tired and achy to worry about rinsing the soot and smoke off his body or changing clothes or making dinner. Even just getting to his actual bed seemed too hard. The bedroom might as well be miles away.

It was really too early to sleep, but he drifted in and out of hazy, fragmented dreams anyway while Happy curled up by his chest.

He was woken some indeterminate time later by Happy poking his arm.

"Go away," he mumbled.

"Natsu, there's a fire outside."

Natsu sat up abruptly. "What?"

Another fire? He rushed over to the window at the back of the house. The sky had darkened to night, and he spotted a small fire twinkling a few feet outside his back door as if one of the stars had taken a tumble and landed in his yard. His anxiety faded when he stepped outside and saw that it was just a small campfire.

Gray was sitting as far away as he possibly could while still within reach of the long stick that had two fluffy marshmallows jammed on its end. His gaze slid sideways to rest on Natsu and he smoothed some of the discomfort from his face.

"What are you doing?" Natsu asked as he plodded over and sat down in the grass next to his friend. Happy dropped out of the sky to squeeze between them.

"Toasting marshmallows, obviously." Gray pulled the stick out of the fire and poked at one of the golden-brown marshmallows before pulling it off in a sticky clump and popping it into his mouth. "These things are the best."

Natsu just raised an eyebrow. In general, Gray did not intentionally go near or make fire any bigger than that of an ordinary match. Especially not when he had just faced a raging inferno mere hours earlier.

"Can I have one?" Happy asked, eyes sparkling in the firelight as he widened them as far as they could go.

"Sure." Gray pulled the other one off the skewer and handed it over, before taking two new ones from the bag propped against his knee in the grass beside him. He speared them and stuck them back into the flames.

Happy munched away cheerfully while Natsu frowned at Gray. Gray did not look over again, but kept his gaze fixed on the marshmallows in the fire. When the wind blew and sent tendrils of fire leaning towards him, he flinched.

"You don't have to prove anything," Natsu said finally.

Gray snorted. "I've never felt the need to prove anything to you."

"Gray, it's okay. You did fine, we all did fine. You don't have anything to prove."

Gray was quiet for a long moment, eyes glassy in the firelight. "I froze," he said. "After everything, after how far I thought I'd come, I just…froze. What good is that?"

Natsu sighed. "That was a little bit different than lighting a match. We've been so careful to take everything one small step at a time, and that was just…overwhelming. Anyone would've panicked."

"But you went in," Happy said. He was licking marshmallow off his paws rather than looking at Gray, but his eyes were serious. "Even though you were scared, you went in to save that girl. That's really brave."

"And you did start fighting your way back out once you snapped out of it," Natsu added. "It was…pretty amazing, how you did all that when usually you won't even walk near a candle. You've come really far. You're strong and brave, and you don't have to prove anything—not to anyone, not to me, not to yourself. What you've already accomplished is remarkable enough."

Gray chewed on the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. Resting his free arm on his leg, he stared into the depths of the flames as if searching for an answer. Then he pulled the skewer out and slid a marshmallow off the end.

Seeing his chance, Natsu swooped in for the kill and grabbed the other marshmallow, popping it into his mouth before Gray had time to react.

"Hey!" Gray protested. "That was mine."

"You gave one to Happy."

"Happy can make himself look cute when he wants something. You can't."

"I resent that."

"I resent that you ate my marshmallow."

Natsu laughed, relieved that the fire hadn't taken this away. Hadn't taken themselves away. But for good measure, he sucked in a breath and swallowed down the campfire too.

"And now you also ate my fire," Gray complained.

Natsu shrugged. "You don't have to always play with fire just to prove that you can. There's more to life, more to you, than fear."

Gray blinked at him, taken aback, and dropped his gaze. "I…"

"Let's eat ice cream instead! I've had enough heat for today. Time to cool off."

Gray barked out a surprised laugh as Natsu grabbed him by the arm, snatched up Happy, and pulled them up. They rose in a tangle of limbs and a flurry of laughing complaints, and turned their backs on the remains of the fire, all the smoke and soot and ash.

They stand up on their feet
And step forward
Leaving behind the ashes of their
Fears
Insecurities
Traumas.

And from these ashes
They rise like
Twin phoenixes
In the night.

A little bit broken
A little bit scarred
But wholly victorious.

Note: To be entiiiiirely honest, I wouldn't have relied on this as an ending if I knew I'd be turning it into a multichapter instead of leaving it as a one-shot. It's sort of stereotypical or expected or whatever, but I needed to wrap things up fairly quickly and really just needed a situation to show Gray both hiccuping and overcoming his fears. You know, something not perfect but still showing how far he's come. Preferably something with some kind of connection to the original incident. And there had to be some kind of catalyst to make him face what he's so afraid of. So maybe I picked the most typical route, but I'm too lazy to go back and write a whole new ending now lol

Also, tiny poetry is tiny. Sorry, there was originally none here and I felt like I needed some to match the structure of the other parts but I was too lazy to add a bunch of stuff.

Aaaand The End.

emmahoshi: Ah, but you see, if I solved the problem 100%, there wouldn't be enough Consequences XD Jk, but I like a more realistic take on psychological issues. You know it's sad when a character starts to sound not like himself whenever he indulges in even a short moment of maturity X) To be fair, this follows from the whole entire process the two of them have been going through, it just might not be quite as obvious because most of that process was told through free verse rather than in-depth prose. Lol glad you had a fun flight XD