Questionnaire

A/N: My version of this prompt that I gave to my friendly rival, Maddy02. Eat your heart out, hun! ;D

A handful of days later after apologizing to his daughter, had settled into his old guild, Love and Lucky. He remembered his Layla's loving face and brighter days when life was worth waking up to every morning. Now that he had returned after nearly a decade of selfish ruin, the place felt stale and rather bleak to him.

Yet as he sat at one of the tables reviewing a product sheet for him to sell from, he couldn't stop wondering if…

For another few moments, he just sat there before he wordlessly stood up and walked out of the guild. Reaching into his pocket, he counted the amount of money needed for a train ticket to Magnolia.

A block away from her apartment was when he saw Lucy walk through the front doorway with a pink haired young man and a flying blue cat. Her annoyed faced towards her companions reminded him of when she walked away from him on two significant occasions.

"Goodbye, father," she said as she walked out of his office after threatening him from ever harming Fairy Tail again.

"I still don't forgive you," was what she said when he appeared to her a second time.

Traveling all this way just to see her was his goal to cure his curiosity but he couldn't bring himself to greet her. The alienation between them was just too great to ignore. He couldn't just pretend that how he treated her had not happened. She made that point quite clear.

So he reluctantly leaned against the building, watching her skip along the strip of bricks when he noticed two boatmen warn her to be careful. He narrowed his eyes as he too noticed it was rather thin and close to the river. Those men were right in warning her.

Once he was sure his daughter was gone, he decided to wet his curiosity another way. The two boatmen were floating along the water when he raised a hand to wave them over.

"Ahoy!" he called, wondering it he was using the right word.

"Ahoy!" they answered back, rowing to his side of the river. When they were close enough to him, he leaned over the side of the low wall carefully.

"I was wondering if you," he paused as he thought over the appropriate word to address these men with since gentlemen was a term he was no longer in social standing to use anymore," boys knew Lucy?"

The taller of the two in the small boat shared a happy look with his partner before nodding. "Ah, that little lady who is always skippin' along here? Yeah we know her."

The shorter young man with brown eyes nodded in earnest, "She pulls that stunt almost every day on her way to or from the guild she belongs to."

He nodded then looked down at his hands which started gripping the wall a little tighter.

"I would like to know if she's happy. Is she doing alright?"

Both the men blinked at this question and then looked at each other.

"Well she looks happy. Her friends make her crazy but they also make her laugh."

He closed his eyes at this news and he smiled lightly to himself. It was good enough for him.

Nodding down to the two men, he gave them a salute. "Thanks, boys. Have a good day!"

He was two steps away from the riverside when he heard the men call for him. Leaning back over the wall again, he raised his eyebrows in inquiry.

"Do you know the Lucy girl?" the smaller man asked while his partner grinned real big.

He paused for a moment to think of a decent enough answer and then smiled back. "An old acquaintance is what I am. I was just curious and am glad she is doing well."

They parted ways and he was making his way back to the train station which was in the opposite direction of her guild. He could try and see Lucy but it was all just awkward when they were near each other and when they were apart. Even if he had money to offer her, she wouldn't take it. She was proud, just like him as his wife had said before.

"She's like you in so many ways, dear," Layla had murmured to him one night.

Lucy Heartfilia may act like him sometimes, but she was not going to ruin herself and screw up like he did. She would work to be better. It was all he could hope for now.

Fin

Please be sure to read Maddy02's version of this prompt in her FT collection, Fairy Lore. Great stuff that! A must for a Fairy Tail fan!