Disclaimers: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima. All Forgotten Realms Concepts and Characters Belong to Wizards of the Coast, LLC. The concept of the Soulbond has been modified from the video game Drakan, a property of Surreal Software . Kai Dragneel belongs to me.

A/N For some reason I feel the need to reassure people that no one dies in this chapter.

Chapter 2: Father And Son

Gray Fullbuster straightened himself up after Natsu had unceremoniously shoved him through the doors of the Lamia Scale Guild. He looked back but the doors had closed behind him and his mate had already disappeared from view. He was very nervous. It had been over two months since Tartaros and he had not seen or talked to his father once in that time.

All the mages of Lamia Scale that sat near the entrance were eyeing him with interest, their conversations interrupted by his abrupt entrance. He ignored their curious stares as he looked around trying to find Lyon. Instead he saw his father, Silver Fullbuster, talking animatedly to the Wizard Saint Jura Neekis at a table near the back.

Silver looked good, he looked almost happy as he laughed at something the Wizard Saint said. Gray found himself smiling at the sight. The last time Gray had seen him he had been a charred mess, but the wounds he had received from Kai's attack had managed to heal with minimal scarring making Gray think that Lyon had somehow convinced his father to let Sherria heal him. He was glad for that, he had heard from Wendy that Silver had refused her help on the cube.

He saw Lyon approach them from the direction of the bar. His arms laden with drinks for the three of them. Lyon and Silver looked very comfortable with each other and Gray felt the beginnings of jealousy course through him even as he tried to ignore it. He was the one who had left Silver severely injured on Tartaros without even a word, more concerned with his mate and child than with his own father. Lyon had not had anyone to look up to since Ur died and he was not about to begrudge him that, especially when he had willingly taken on the role of caretaker in his place.

He felt stupid just standing there but he couldn't seem to make his feet move towards their table. He felt a sudden warmth fill him through the soul bond and smiled, Natsu must be watching him from the window. He was about to turn and look when he heard someone call out his name.

"Gray?', a short blue-haired mage with bushy eyebrows asked as he walked towards the ice mage, "I didn't recognize you with your clothes on."

"Uhm, hi?", Gray answered, embarrassed that he could not remember the name of one of the members of his brother's team.

"Yuka Suzuki.", the mage supplied helpfully, "Did Lyon know you were coming?"

"No, it was a spur of the moment decision.", Gray said as he self-consciously began to tug at his shirt.

"Oh, I'll let him know you're here."

"There's no need, Yuka.", Lyon appeared behind his teammate, "Hello, Gray. I take it you're ready to talk to your father?"

Gray nodded nervously.

"Well go see him then, he's been waiting for a long time." Lyon gently nudged Gray towards the table where Silver was still talking to Jura.

"I'll be going on a small job with my team, I'll be back in time for dinner."

Gray nodded even as he heard Yuka ask Lyon what job he was talking about. He began to make his way to the back table. Silver finally saw him and quickly stood up. He looked nervous as he ran his fingers through his hair in a gesture that Gray was very familiar with. It made him feel a little better to know that his father was nervous too.

He gave Silver an awkward smile and sat down across from him. Jura had tactfully left the table when he noticed Gray was there. Silver sat back down and stared at Gray almost as if he was assuring himself that his son was real.

"Hi Dad.", Gray began, trying to sound more confident than he felt, "I thought it was about time we talked."

Silver waited in uncomfortable silence. He wanted Gray to say whatever he needed to without interrupting but the boy had not uttered another word for awhile now.

"I wanted to say I was sorry for leaving you there.", Gray finally spoke, ashamed of his behavior, "and for some of the things I said, you know, during. That was wrong of me."

Silver looked at his son in disbelief. "Son, I was trying to kill your mate and I hurt you, I think you were somewhat justified."

He pulled at his hair. This was not right. Gray shouldn't be apologizing to him. Lyon was right, his son was an idiot who could not hold a grudge. "Gray, there is nothing for you to apologize to me about. You were a victim in all this. I was the one who went about everything all wrong. You have every right to hate me."

"I don't hate you.", Gray said honestly, "I don't really understand what I feel but it's not hate."

Gray found that now that he had started talking he could not stop. The words kept coming out of his mouth before he could stop them. "I want to understand what happened to you. How you ended up mixed up with Tartaros, why I was alone all those years. Why didn't you look for me?"

"I didn't know, Gray.", Silver said and a twinge of despair could be heard in his voice, "Everything I did , I did because I thought I had nothing left. I thought both you and your mother had been killed by Deliora. I made both of you a grave and I visited it whenever I could. I kept you in my thoughts and in my heart and your deaths fueled my deep need for revenge. I'll be honest though, I don't know what I could have done if I had known you were alive. I would never have wanted Keyes to know about you."

He sighed, "You have to know, I never stopped loving you. Either of you. The biggest torture of this unwanted existence for me was being away from you. I craved death, but that's the big joke isn't it? I can't die, not unless Keyes dies or he releases me. My only happy thought was that somewhere you and Mika were waiting for me and we would be reunited once more. I missed you both so much!"

Gray had tears in his eyes as his father's words brought back Deliora's attack on his town of Isvan, the only home he had ever known. He remembered seeing his father trying to protect them from a monster that Gray would have never been able to come up with even in his worst nightmares. The monster's hollow, dead eyes freezing him in place, making hm too afraid to move lest he manage to attract its attention. Remembered his mother dragging him, trying to get him to react so that they could move away from the demon's swath of destruction, she still somehow managed to be warm and encouraging even through her own terror. Remembered her falling prey to one of the demon's attacks but bravely screaming at him to run and hide even as her body was torn to pieces by the energy beam. Remembered the usually beautiful white snow splattered red with blood that belonged inside his friends, and his family and all the people who lived in his town and how he'd run slipping on things he never wished to give a name to. Remembered later when everything was quiet walking around looking for any survivors but finding none. He had found Silver then and had laid next to his cold body for hours until he'd had no choice but to find shelter. That's where Ur and Lyon had found him. He began to sob as he now saw the same man sitting in front of him alive.

Silver stood up from his side of the table and made his way to his son. He grabbed him up from his seat and pulled him into a hug letting him let out all the tears Gray had not allowed himself to shed in the name of being strong. "Shh, It's ok, Gray. It's over, the demons are all gone and they are never coming back. Deliora is never coming back, Ur made sure of that. I am the only Demon Gate left and as soon as I take out E.N.D. Zeref will have no demons left to call upon."

As a child, Gray had been a very sweet and thoughtful boy. He'd been friendly and open. Silver held many memories of their time together as a family. All the games they had played and the words they had said to each other out of love. They had been happy. Silver could not even begin to imagine what surviving Deliora's attack must have done to his son, especially when the second family he had allowed himself to get close to had been ripped away in much the same way soon after. He marveled at the man that stood in front of him and wondered how on Earthland he had managed to stay so whole. He thanked the Gods that Gray had found his way to Fairy Tail. He would forever be grateful to that old man for healing his boy. He hugged Gray tighter, part of him still having trouble believing that his son was alive. He allowed the love that was in his heart for his son to overtake the hate and vengeance he had held onto for so long and for the first time in his undead life he began to have hope for the future.

Gray pushed himself away from his father and wiped his tears away with the sleeve of his jacket. "I'm sorry, I don't usually let myself think about what happened.'

"There's nothing to be sorry about. I understand, I lost everything that day too. I owe you some answers. This is a long story, you might want to grab something to drink."

They went to the bar to order some drinks and Silver turned towards Gray taking the opportunity to ask a question he'd had since the moment he'd seen his son.

"Natsu didn't come with you?"

"He did. He went to Sabertooth to talk to Sting about everything that happened at Tartaros with Kai. He'll join us later."

"Does he blame me?", Silver asked seriously. This was something that weighed heavily on his mind. He could not forget the pain that he put them through. It still pained him that he had not been strong enough to resist Tiamat's control.

"I don't really know how he feels but he encouraged me to come see you. He's had a hard time of it."

"Alright. I'd like to get the chance to apologize to him for hurting him."

"You should have plenty of chances. We'd like you to come back to Magnolia with us."

"To live with you?"

"Well, no. We thought you might want to live in one of our places. Maybe you could even join Fairy Tail. We are planning on building a house for when Kai comes."

'I see. I'd like to talk to Natsu before I decide. I don't want to be a problem for the two of you."

"Natsu's not like that.", Gray assured him, "He understands it wasn't your fault."

"Still, I'd feel more comfortable once I knew his feelings.", Silver said as he paid for the drinks and they headed back to their table. They sat down and Silver began his story.

"As far as I know I was chosen at random. My body just happened to be in better shape than some of the others around me. I don't remember much about the experiments, let's just say they were unpleasant. Keyes' curse was Necromancy and he was using it to try to resurrect corpses that would be indistinguishable from human beings. He would then control them to do his bidding, unfortunately for him they did not seem to last for very long, that is until I came along. My desire for vengeance fueled my body far longer than any of his other experiments and I became his proudest achievement."

"When I came to I didn't know what had happened to me. At first I thought I had managed to survive and I ran back to Isvan to search for the two of you hoping you had survived as well. Those hopes were shattered when I was told that there had been no survivors. I went to the house anyway hoping they were wrong. I placed a marker for you so that I would have a place to visit and I promised you both that I would avenge you. I didn't know how but I was going to make the demons pay for what they did to us. Especially Deliora.

I roamed for months trying to find out as much as I could about demons so that I could set about destroying them. I even went to the Magic Library but there was not much information available about them.

One day I came upon this old man who was fighting a creature unlike any I had ever seen before. He was able to defeat it easily using some sort of magic, much like what you saw me use against Tiamat. I talked to him wanting to know how I could learn something like that. It turns out he belonged to a clan of something called devil slayers. He was the last remaining one, all the others had been taken out by Delliora as well.

The old man did not want the lost magic of his clan to die with him and when I told him I was determined to destroy Deliora he agreed to teach me, even gave me all the writings he had. I practiced in secret for years and I began to kill demons I encountered while performing my missions for Keyes, Soon after word got around that Deliora had been encased in a wall of ice by the ice mage Ur and I visited Brago to see it with my own eyes. With my new magic I could feel the demon still alive in there and I could feel Ur's will working away at him. I honed my skills and made a point of visiting often, making sure that he was getting weaker and ready to take action if he wasn't.

Even though I was still under Keyes' control, I began to get stronger. Soon word of my abilities got back to Mard Geer, the leader of the Guild,and for some reason it amused him. He decided to make me one of his Demon Gates. Personally, I think he enjoyed having a devil slayer as a puppet. It was his way of keeping the other demons in check. I continued to do Tartaros' bidding but I had my own mission. I wanted to take out all demons but none more than the ones I was forced to work with. I wanted to take Tartaros out from the inside and I wanted to destroy its Master, the demon known as E.N.D.

On a whim I decided to go to the Grand Magic Games and that's when everything changed. I saw you there and I couldn't believe that you had been alive all this time. I spent the entire day watching you, on the screen and in your team box. That's how I knew who Natsu was, I saw the way you acted around him and I knew he was important to you, that's why I tried to protect him from Franmalth. I just wish I had known about what had happened to him before I froze him and had him placed in that cell. I really have a lot I have to make up for with him.", Silver sighed.

He knew he had screwed up in just about everything to do with the Fire Dragon Slayer and despite Lyon's assurances that Natsu possessed a very forgiving nature Silver wasn't sure anybody should be that forgiving.

"You know the rest, Tartaros' plan to destroy magic and revive E.N.D., it had been Keyes plan to have me fight you to the death, or have you perform Iced Shell to kill me. Mutually assured destruction. But Tiamat and Fairy Tail showed up and messed up all their plans and now here we are."

Silver noticed Gray was not paying attention to him any longer. He had a faraway look like he was trying to figure out something.

"Am I boring you?", Silver asked with some amusement.

Gray looked at him puzzled. "What?"

"You look like your mind is elsewhere."

"Oh. Natsu seems to be upset about something.', Gray explained.

"I didn't know you had telepathy."

"I don't, through the soul bond we can feel whenever the other is having a strong emotion. Sometimes we can send emotions to each other, we're still learning how it works. Right now I can tell that he's unhappy about something but I have no idea what."

"So since you brought it up, can I ask you a few questions?"

"Uhm, sure?", Gray said sounding anything but.

"What is this soulbond you keep referring to?", Silver asked with some concern.

"It's an ancient ritual that we performed that fused our souls together into one. We were able to claim each other and cancel out Tiamat's forced claim on Natsu. Now we're mates.

"Ok, what about the pregnancy, is it a one time thing or is it some sort of dragon slayer ability?", Silver still wasn't sure how he felt about the idea of a man being pregnant but he was curious.

"It's a one time thing, it's a magical pregnancy caused by Tiamat. We won't ever be able to have any more children unless we adopt them.", Gray said a little sadly. He liked the idea of him and Natsu creating a larger family.

"Are you truly in love with him?", this was the most important question in Silver's mind. He and Mika had been very much in love and he did not want anything less for his son. He worried that Gray might feel badly for Natsu and was committing himself to the Fire Dragon Slayer out of a misguided sense of responsibility.

"I've never loved anyone else.", Gray told his father honestly.

Silver smiled at Gray. "I'm glad to hear it."

"I think that's probably enough talk for one day.", Silver said, "When did you say Natsu was getting here? I'm starving."

"He should be here any minute. ", Gray said, "He has to make his way back from Sabertooth."

"I'd love to hear about your life at dinner.", Silver grinned, "I bet Natsu and Lyon have some great stories to tell."

They continued to talk about general topics as they waited for the others. Gray was happy that he had decided to come and he felt a little better. He was sure now that he did want his dad to be a part of their life. Their conversation had given him a lot to think about, he was especially curious about the devil slayer magic his father had learned and wondered if his father would teach it to him.

Lyon finally entered the guild with Yuka and Toby and they immediately joined Gray and Silver. Gray tried to follow their conversation but gave up, content to watch them as he let his mind drift to his boyfriend. He was curious to hear about how Natsu's conversation with Sting had gone and what could've happened to make him so upset. He soon saw a familiar head of pink hair heading towards them and he quickly got up to greet him before he got too close to the table.

Natsu saw Gray walk towards him and plastered a smile on his face. He didn't really want to talk about what he had learned yet. He wanted to be able to enjoy a nice dinner with his mate and Silver and Lyon.

"Don't you dare try to hide it.", Gray chided him , "What happened?"

Natsu saw the worry in the blue eyes he loved and berated himself. He really needed to work on learning how to control what flowed through the soulbond.

"I promise you, nothing is wrong.", Natsu said, "I intend on telling you all about it later but right now I'm tired and hungry and I really just want to enjoy being with you and meeting your dad when he's not trying to kill me."

Natsu realized what he'd said and quickly tried to fix it, "Crap! I didn't mean it like that, I was trying to be funny.", Natsu sighed, "Can we just start over?"

Gray nodded and looked at him expectantly.

Natsu embraced Gray and whispered in his ear, "I missed you."

Gray wrapped his arms around Natsu and held him tightly against him. He felt Natsu's muscles relax in his arms. As long as he knew that Natsu wasn't trying to hide something from him, he could wait.

"I missed you too, are you feeling ok?", Gray asked, "Did you take the tr--"

His words were cut off by Natsu's lips as the fire mage kissed him. He kissed him back happily. Once they pulled apart Natsu asked him, "How did it go?"

"Better than I thought it would."

"Good!", Natsu beamed at him, "I'm glad you finally decided to come. Now can we go eat, I'm starving!"

"You're always starving, Pinkie.", Gray snorted

"Hey, I'm eating for two!", Natsu complained.

"You mean two dozen."

"I'd like to see you be pregnant, Ice Block."

"I'm sure I would be better at it than you, Ashes for brains"

"Can you guys be done with the flirting? Some of us would like to go eat", Lyon interrupted. He tried to sound annoyed but he was happy to see the two acting more normal. They'd had a rough go of it lately.

"You want a piece of me, Ice Penguin?", Natsu growled.

Silver chuckled to see the spirit that all of these kids had. "Come on guys let's go, my treat."

Lyon saw Natsu's overjoyed expression at Silver's comment and replied, "Silver, you are going to regret that."

They all walked out of Lamia Scale and towards the restaurant together.

o-o

A/N This will not be the last time Gray and Silver talk about stuff but it's a good beginning for them. I'm still not sure what the update schedule will be for this story. I usually try to update once a week but I don't like to make promises because life happens and I am publishing another story at the same time. Please let me know what you think, I love to hear from you. Until next time!