Author's note: This story has themes centering around depression, self-harm, anorexia, and recovery. If you have a hard time stomaching this kind of content I would advise against reading. The thoughts and feelings expressed in this story will largely come from my own journey with depression and anorexia, so note that everyone deals with these issue differently. If you are in crisis, please reach out for help. There is always someone who loves you more than you love yourself, and it is never too late to learn how to love yourself as they do. Now with that being said, please enjoy the story. 3
It was a morning similar to most others. The sunlight streaming in through a slit in the curtains, illuminating the pale gold hair of the celestial mage as it fell in untamed streams around her face. She stirred, the light disturbing her otherwise peaceful sleep.
The light, she thought, was awfully bright for so early in the day. She peeped an eye open to look outside and as soon as she realized how high up the sun was in the sky she bolted out of bed leaving her blankets and sheets strewn about haphazardly.
"Shit shit shit!" she yelped as she ran around her cozy apartment trying to find an outfit to wear for the day. At one point in time, she was meticulous about her living quarters; however, in recent months due to certain circumstances that had changed. Her laundry needed done, the dishes were a whole other story, and a general unkemptness fell onto everything in her apartment.
Once she finished dressing, she threw her long hair up into a pony-tail and grabbed her bag from the kitchen table before bolting out the door, not bothering to lock it behind her. Good luck to the thief that attempting to find something to steal in there, she thought to herself.
"I am so late, Jason is going to be so mad," she grumbled as she made her way to the stadium where the final day of the Grand Magic Games were taking place. Since Fairy Tail's disbandment last year, she's started working under Jason as an editor-in-training after a brief stint of trying her hand in modeling. She was now a full-time editor and she really didn't want to fuck that up. She spends most of her free-time keeping tabs on the whereabout of her lost guildmates, but that's a story for a later time.
Running up to the stadium, two guards stand in her way. "Identification please," one of them states.
"Uh, yes, of course. It's in my bag," she flusters while searching through her bag; few things in her life were organized and her bag was definitely not one of them. "I swear I put in in here… Please, can you make an exception for little 'ol me?" Lucy questions while slyly pushing her breasts together and mustering up her most convincing puppy dog eyes.
"No," the guards state in unison. Lucy huffs and returns to looking through her bag, and she hears an announcement that the final battle is getting ready to take place. Finally, she finds her press pass. "Told ya," she sticks her tongue out as she runs past the guards and into the stadium.
As the battle arena comes into view, she spots Jason. "Hey! Sorry I'm so late. My alarm didn't go off this morning!"
"I was starting to get a little worried!" Jason exclaims, "The final match is just beginning."
Lucy turns her attention on the ensuing battle, which was not nearly as exciting since no major guilds entered this year. It ended just as she had assumed it would, with the underdog guild taking the win. She thought about when she competed in the games with her guild, reminiscing on how action packed and intense it was. Nothing at all like the games she had watched these past few days. In fact, this was very much how her life seemed to be lately, mundane and monotonous since Fairy Tail had disbanded.
Moving to gather her things and start writing her article, she felt a sudden rush of intense magic power. She immediately whipped her head around the stadium, searching for the source of the power when she noticed a cloaked figure entered the arena just as they were beginning to crown the winner.
Suddenly, a blast of heat emanated from the stranger as he claims he is the winning guild's next challenger. Wasting no time, the figure begins fighting the guild in a fury of fierce flames. Lucy is stunned, not sure what to think or do. The fight came to an end as the new challenger made quick work of Scarmiglione was defeated and the stadium was in tatters. It was then that the strangers hood came down, revealing the face of the last person she expected to see.
"Natsu…" she whispers before everything went black.