A/N Happy freaking belated New Year's guys!

Everyone is at Erza's house for the countdown, and the room is full of anticipation as everyone leans in to the TV where the countdown is ticking: 59… 58… 57…

It's dark outside, but inside it's brightly lit and in Times Square lights are shining everywhere with neon strength that the television can't catch. The sound quality sucks, so Ryan Seacrest's voice is static-y and the background cheering turns into a low hum, but nobody cares all that much.

All of a sudden the image on the TV wavers, turns grainy, and the screen breaks off into brightly colored squares that mangle the celebrities' faces as the sound of their voices breaks off.

A resounding scream of horror, disbelief, and anger erupts from everyone.

"We were soooo close!" (Lucy)

"Erza, why does your TV suck so badly?" (Gajeel)

"Oh my God, Gajeel, could you just fix it already?!" (Lisanna, in an unexpected fit of anger)

"Yeah, you old piece of scrap metal, do something!" (Natsu, in a not-so-unexpected fit of anger)

"Pleeease, Gajeel! We're missing the ball drop!" (Levy)

"Just get to it so I can drink all the champagne!" (Cana)

"Will someone please just quit their whining and do something before we miss the fucking ball drop?" (Gray)

Finally, as everyone screams their lungs out, Gajeel lets out a long-suffering sigh and hunkers over to the TV to fiddle with a few cords and wires. The audience yells encouragement and insults and waits not-at-all patiently.

Gajeel recoils as someone throws a plastic cup at his head. "Who threw that?!" he demands, letting the wires drop and glaring at the people piling on/spilling over the sofa.

Unexpectedly, it's not Natsu. Even more unexpectedly, it's Lisanna, who seems very excited to watch the ball drop on the crackling TV. "You're not even trying!" she hisses. "Do it and get it right before the drop airs or else I'll tell Levy about last Tuesday!"

Levy is upon Lisanna in a minute: "What about last Tuesday?"

Gajeel suddenly seems extremely motivated to fix the television. He connects a broken wire and the screen suddenly bursts into life.

The countdown's back at "… 3…" and everyone scrambles in a flurry to understand what's going on.

Traditionally, people would start counting down from ten, but they're a little late so there's a disjointed "Three!" from a handful of people.

Finally, everyone grasps the situation, so the "Two!" is with greater strength.

"One!" is unwavering and determined, filled with buzzing anticipation.

And then there's just screaming. Actually, a good majority of the watchers are doing nothing but screaming their lungs out, so the "Zero!"s and "Happy New Year!"s are drowned in the commotion.

Cana pops the top off of a champagne bottle and the cheers strengthen.

Lucy tries to turn to Natsu, but she's wedged between an awful lot of people. She's determined, though; it's been long enough. This is the year she's going to do it. She's going to let him know how she's felt this whole time.

Somewhere to her left, Erza and Jellal lean in. Levy tackles a surprised Gajeel, mirrored by Juvia, and Romeo and Wendy stutter by each other. Evergreen seizes Elfman and yanks him up by the collar for a kiss.

This is it. She's going to turn to Natsu right now and say those three little words that have been replaying in her head: "I love you."

But just as she's turning to face Natsu, she feels a hand tilting up her chin and a pair of chapped lips pressing against her own.

Her eyes shoot open to see tan skin and pink hair and Lisanna is practically screaming/laughing into her ear, "I knew it! I knew it!" It's hard to piece everything together with her fumbling brain but somehow she just thinks Natsu and that's it.

He pulls away not a moment later with a foolishly confident/idiotic, childish grin and how does he seem so carefree about this whole thing when her heart can't even beat anymore?

He says something she can't hear over all the celebrating, but she watches him mouth the words, his stupid smile never leaving, and she knows what he means because it mirrors her over and over again. She fists her hands in his shirt, too full of joy to do anything but cry just a little and say it back, over and over again. "I love you I love you Iloveyou."

"You're so weird, Luce," he says, and she can hear him clearly now. "There's no need to cry. I don't know why you seem so surprised. I thought you knew that I loved you this whole time. I mean, I made it pretty obvious."

Yeah. He's just ruined it. She pulls back, ready to slap him in the face and tell him off for being an idiot, but his face is so open and his reaction was so completely him that she chokes up. So she just kisses him again instead.

Here's to all the places we went. And all the places we'll go.

And here's me, whispering again and again and again and again:

iloveyou

-John Green, An Abundance of Katherines