This is for Ame! (amehanaa) Happy birthday! It's not everyday you turn 15! :) This story is to show you just how special 15 can be :) I hope you enjoy!

Lucy smiled but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Genuine smiles had been hard for fifteen years.

She drew in a ragged breath as her daughter swung her arm, grinning widely.

Her fourteen-year old daughter's pink hair made Lucy turn away. Fifteen years. It had been fifteen years.

Waiting had done nothing. Time had done nothing. He had not come back to her. And she wasn't sure he ever would.

Flashback

"You're what!?" The vase Lucy had been holding a few seconds before shattered onto the ground.

"I'm sorry, Lucy. It's for the best."

She refused to cry. She had to be strong. Yet she felt so weak when he kissed her between her eyebrows.

She hugged him.

And she never wanted to let go.

"I can't believe you're going to become a principal! You're too young to become a principal!" Natsuko, Summer's child, laughed.

Lucy laughed with her. "I'm 32!"

"You're right. You're over the hill!"

Lucy mocked a grimace and elbowed Natsuko.

He didn't know. He didn't know he had a beautiful child, one that made Lucy heal a little every day.

Natsuko glanced at her watch and her eyes widened. "Mom! You're going to be late, c'mon!"

She grabbed her mom's hand and dragged her the rest of the way to school.

"Natsuko! You just said I was practically over the hill! Don't you dare do that again!" Lucy yelled, panting.

Natsuko laughed and shoved Lucy into the school. "Go Mom!"

"Okay, okay. Jeez!" Lucy huffed and made her way to the auditorium.

She sat in her chair and looked at the present her pink-haired love gave her on their first summer of dating, a diamond ring that flashed. Lucy looked at it sadly and sighed. She would never see him again. She had accepted the fact.

Natsuko would never meet her father. She deserved to. The celebration passed without Lucy noticing until they called her name.

"Now, I would like for Lucy Heartfilia—"

It should be Dragneel, Lucy thought. She just wished he was here to see this.

"—to please step on stage for a few words."

Lucy sighed and stood up. That was her cue. She slowly walked onto stage and stood at the podium. She didn't want to do this. She would've waited eternity for him to see this. But she couldn't wait for eternity.

"Life is an adventure. And somedays they lead us to unexpected twists and turns. And I guess that's what we have to love about it. Every new step is a step up or down on the rung of life. Today, I'm glad to say that someone has led me up a rung of life. And I'm—"

Lucy stopped. No. But it was. A familiar face beamed from the back of the crowd. His pink spikes were messed up and he had scars on his hands, but there he was.

"Natsu," she breathed.

He was here. He was here.

Before she knew what was happening, Lucy had flung herself off the stage and she was crossing the room. The world was spinning. Her world was spinning. And then she was in his arms. He collapsed and they were on the ground, locked in an embrace. Lucy held tightly to the man as silent tears streamed down her face.

He was still wearing his uniform. His army uniform. He ran his hands through her hair and it was like the last fifteen years hadn't happened. She cupped his cheek in her hand. "Natsu?" she whispered.

"I'm right here, Lucy."

And she knew he was.

He kissed her and she clung to it. She was afraid he would disappear. Again.

"Dad?"

Natsu and Lucy looked up and Natsuko was there, her eyes filled with tears.

Natsu looked at Lucy, shock written on his face. She nodded slightly and he stood up and then grabbed her arms and pulled her in. Natsuko and Natsu grabbed Lucy's arm and pulled her into the embrace, too.

Fifteen years had changed everything. And yet they were a fifteen years that she would relive for this moment.

Lucy clung onto her family like her life depended on it.

And she never wanted to let go.

Fifteen years can mean the world.