Lucy Heartfilia sighed and slipped her arm around Lisanna's shoulder as they sat on the shore watching the waves play with the colors of the sunset, twisting and tossing them into an abstract watercolor painting. As she moved closer to her girlfriend, Lucy felt her heart settle into her chest with a weight of contentment, but also one of mild worry. She adored her partner with every part of her being; she would sacrifice herself for Lisanna with no hesitation. What worried Lucy was not Lisanna – it was her family.

While Lucy had been out to the guild since not too long after joining, Lisanna still harbored her secret in the confines of her heart, locked away from everyone except Lucy. It had taken her quite a bit longer than her girlfriend to realize and accept her sexuality. In the circles she kept, all of the relationships were straight ones except for Natsu and Gray, and not until talking to Lucy one night while out on a mission did she admit that there could be another option besides men when it came to having a romantic partner, one that she'd considered briefly on many occasions but of which she refused to entertain the idea. Lucy's chest tightened at the memory of that conversation; she struggled to imagine the pain that must have resulted from so many years of inner turmoil and anguish and fear. However, she longed to propose to Lisanna one day and celebrate their marriage with the guild. In order to do that, Lisanna would eventually have to come out, and Lucy preferred for that to happen before she proposed.

Lucy slipped her free hand into her partner's and kissed her cheek gently for a few seconds before pulling back to marvel at the softness of Lisanna's profile, watching the way her eyes captured the union of sky and sea. Lisanna felt Lucy's gaze and turned to her.

"You okay, Luce?" she asked with a hint of concern. Lucy pulled herself out of her daze and smiled, squeezing Lisanna's hand. "Of course. I'm with you, aren't I?

Lisanna's cheeks reddened at the compliment; Lucy was so good at smoothly working them into her responses. She returned the squeeze. "You just seem worried about something. You've never been the greatest at hiding your emotions. What is it?"

Lucy released her grip of Lisanna's hand and stared down at her lap, wringing her own two hands together. She didn't want to pressure Lisanna into doing anything that made her uncomfortable, but Lisanna coming out was a necessary step if Lucy wanted to move forward with her plans and with their relationship in general. Lisanna lowered her gaze to try to meet Lucy's eyes.

"Hey…" she cooed, taking hold of Lucy's hand with both of her own and holding it securely. "I'm here."

Lucy closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and on the exhale, she blurted "I want you to come out to the guild." Lisanna's eyes sharpened with fear and her grip on Lucy's hand loosened. The fear in her eyes was replaced by small clouds of shame. "Or, at the very least, to your siblings," she added quickly. "They deserve to know. They love you so much, Lis. They want you to be happy." Lucy shifted to face her girlfriend and grabbed both of her hands. "And so do I. Lis, you aren't happy being in the closet. I know some people can do it for years and not have many issues, but you're the kind of person who loves to share her life with the people she cares about. This is such a vital aspect of your life, love. And I want you to be really, truly happy."

Lisanna smiled as a few stray tears escaped her eyes. Lucy leaned in and kissed away each tear as it fell before sitting back, her gentle smile fading.

"It's also a necessary step for our relationship. Lisanna, I want to marry you someday, and I want the whole guild to be part of the celebration. For both our sakes, I don't want to force you out of the closet by proposing when you're not ready to come out. I'll wait as long as you need me to, but this is something that needs to be talked about and considered. Will you at least promise to seriously consider coming out to even just one person at a time? And to have these discussions with me? It's so important."

Lisanna stared at the sand for a long while, drawing patterns in it while she processed what Lucy said. Finally she looked straight into her love's eyes, her own eyes glassy with tears of a thousand mixed emotions, and said, "I promise."

Lucy grinned and gently pressed her lips to Lisanna's for several seconds, tasting the salty tears that Lisanna had allowed to fall. When she pulled back and looked at her face, Lucy realized with a heart soaring so high it hurt that she had never been so in love with another human in her life, and nearly teared up herself thinking about how she had truly been given all of the luck that the universe had to offer. They helped each other up off of the sand, brushing each other off, and walked hand in hand through the evening shadows towards the guild as the ocean serenaded them with the softest goodbye melody.