Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters


AN: I was in the mood to write about something a little bittersweet, so here you go.


She had promised herself she wouldn't cry. She's lost track of how many times she almost broke than promise, but she'd always find a way to control herself.

She knew she wasn't the only one saddened by his absence, and she wanted to be there for her friends, so that was the role she designated to herself. In the end, it was Lucy who she spent most of her time with.

No matter how much it hurt her, she would listen.

No matter how much pain it caused her, she would help them move on.

No matter how much she wished to cry, she would smile for them and ease there burdens.

Some of the guild thought of her as mature, for accepting what happened and helping the others move on. Some thought of her as heartless for not mourning his passing even once.

But none of that mattered to her, she simply wanted to keep the promise that she had imposed upon herself, claiming it to be for the sake of her friends, for the sake of his friends.

After 6 years, the guild had move on, but it was never the same. The everyday brawls had ceased, at least the ones in the guild hall had. They still had their scuffles elsewhere, but never in the guild hall.

His house was still there, she and her teammates made sure of that. Every week or so, one of them would go and make sure the house was clean and not falling apart. Even Gray had willingly accepted the task.

It was her turn to clean up the house this week.

When they arrived at the familiar house, she could see that it was still well taken care of. It would seem her teammates hadn't slacked off either. She could see the little tell-tale signs of the houses former residents all throughout the house.

When she moved on to the bedroom she froze. This wasn't uncommon for her; she did it every time she saw his bed. This was the one room in the house they hadn't touched except for some minor dusting here and there.

There were clothes scattered all across the floor.

There was a small bed near the corner of the wall with a 'Happy' nameplate attached to its side.

The dresser had all of it drawers open with their content hanging from them. There was a mess of papers and small items strewn across the top along with two empty mugs.

The bed remained unmade. The sheets were bunched up in the corner and the blanket was halfway hanging off the bed. The same way he had left it that morning before they departed.

And again, she felt her eyes watering, tears threatening to spill from them. She clenched her fists and forced herself not to cry. It wouldn't due for her break her own promises after all.

With her emotions once again under control, she used her magic to gently send all the collected dust out of the open window.

After she closed the windows she started walking out of the room but stopped at the door. She wanted to have one last look at the room before she left.

Just when she was about to leave, she felt a pair of arms drape themselves over her neck, pulling her into a hug. Her vision was tinged pink and the smell of charcoal filled her nostrils.

"Tadaima…" he whispered.

"Okaeri." she said, a beautiful smile radiating from her. And so, for the first time in six year, she cried.


AN: Now, I don't normally use Japanese in my stories, but it felt more appropriate here for some reason.

This doesn't really belong here, but I figured I'd mention it anyway. Here's a short summary of my other works in progress.

Mages in Little Garden: undergoing a complete rewrite. It'll be done when it's done and unfortunately, I have no idea when that will be.

Determination: Because I don't really like how this one turned out, I'm considering doing a rewrite of it. Don't know if I ultimately will or not.

A Brand New World: Chapter 2 is ongoing, but RL is getting in the way of that. I'll be busy all this week and most of next, so it'll probably be a few week before you see anything. Sorry about that.

But that's enough about that, this AN is getting too long.

If you enjoyed this one-shot, please review. I really do enjoy reading them.

Until next time.