Life After Near Death

Inner Strength

"When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways - either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength."
― Dalai Lama

Gray was at home read a book about the culture of a border town where they just had a mission. The town mayor had given Lucy the book, and she insisted it was fascinating. Gray was skeptical, history was not normally his thing, but the rough and rowdy town honestly did have a thrilling history of outlaws, bandits, and some of the greatest heroes in Fiore's history.

Gray wondered if they would now be written in a chapter in this city's list of daring feats and grand battles.

He paused and thought about that. To leave a legacy! It seemed like an amazing thing. Ever since facing death and the long journey of recovery, he had been thinking more and more about that. What was he going to leave behind? Was he making the world a better place? Would anyone even remember him in fifty years?

His near-death experience had changed his view on a lot of things in life. It made him cherish each day, and it made him less reckless, more defensive, protecting his teammates and being just a little more cautious. After all, he had to make sure he was not hit just wrong.

He looked down. His shirt had vanished once again, but he had managed to learn not to throw off the waist armor that he now wore all the time to protect his last remaining kidney. Once, he had left it at home and the guild got attacked. He was sternly ordered not to fight, with Erza pointing her sword at him to keep out of it for his own protection. He ended up running home, putting on the armored waistband, but by the time he came back the fight was over. Ever since then, he simply put it on first thing in the morning.

Same with Natsu. It was their routine. Wake up, shower together, brush their teeth and shave, put their waistband armor on, get dressed, and go to the guild. It was a nice routine.

Nice and domestic.

He laughed to himself as he looked around the room. This was not his old place; that had been too small. It was not Natsu's hut in the woods either, which was too far away and starting to fall apart. When they moved in together, they opted for a little house in town. It had three bedrooms, one for them, one for Happy who was excited to get a bedroom all to himself, and one...

Well ... Gray liked to be optimistic about the future.

"Graaaaay!"

He grinned as he heard Natsu's call and set the book aside to hurry forward. He peeked out the window to see Natsu with his hands full of groceries. Gray rushed to open the door, and Natsu greeted him with a massive smile.

"Natsu! You didn't tell me you were going grocery shopping. You were just gonna walk."

"Yeah, well, we got hungry." He walked in and put the bags down.

"Where's...?"

"With Happy. He wanted to push."

Gray went out into the autumn breeze, with leaves changing color. Happy was just coming up, pushing a stroller.

"Hiya, Gray. He just woke up."

Gray came up and reached into the stroller, pulling out a baby with purple hair and golden eyes. The baby cooed as Gray lifted him into the air.

"Hey there, Kasai," Gray said with a gentle smile.

Natsu stood in the doorway and smiled to himself as he watched Gray cooing over the baby. He had not liked the idea of leaving his house in the woods, but for what Gray wanted in their future, he knew this was the best option. That old hut had been fine for him and Happy, but it was dusty, moldy in places, there were probably splinters everywhere that his callused feet simply did not feel; in general, it was not a place for a baby.