It had been a long day for Team Natsu, they had taken a job several hours away from the guild that, as per usual with them, got out of hand real quick. "Well at least we all got some money." Lucy said, worrying how she was going to pay for her rent this month. "I'm sorry guys, I didn't mean to let my fire get so out of control." Natsu said, while staring down at his shuffling feet. "Hey don't worry about it Natsu, it's not like any of us were any better." Wendy reassured him. "Wendy is right, not matter how much we practice control we almost always find ourselves lacking on the battlefield." Erza said.
"Not to mention the bad guys always cause damage, wonder why the Council never gets mad at them." Lucy said, "Don't worry Natsu, I'm just worried about paying the rent as usual. If I was better at saving my jewels I wouldn't be worried every month about my rent." She didn't add that the reason she never had enough money was because she always had to restock her food supplies after Happy and Natsu visited, which was pretty much every day, if not every other day. Thankfully Natsu didn't seem to think of this as he raised his head, his signature grin back in place.
"Lucy brings up a good point, how come we're the ones that always get blamed for all the damage in a fight? Some of those buildings, etc wouldn't still be standing if we weren't there." Gray muttered. Everyone paused to consider this, but no one had any real idea. "Probably because we're the winners, after all if the spoils go to the victor that means the other has nothing to pay for it with." Carla said, to which Happy responded "Wait, we could be getting the spoils all this time?! Why didn't anyone tell me, I've always left the yummy looking fishies behind!"
Everyone chuckled at this, but nobody really bothered to answer the blue Exceed, prompting him to cross his paws. The team had agreed to walk back to Magnolia since Natsu and Wendy both didn't feel like taking the train. Troia hadn't been working to well and they had yet to figure out a suitable replacement for it, so they both had suffered through the train ride to their destination. If it had just been Natsu, they probably would have told him to suck it up, but Wendy was like a little sister to them all and so for her comfort, they walked.
As the sun started to set, Erza said "We should stop and make camp for the night." The rest of the team nodded their agreements, before they all moved off the road a little ways to set up camp. This particular road ran past a river and so, finding a good spot close to it, first the girls, then the guys went to wash up after the long journey. Afterwards they settled down to eat, the food being cooked on the fire the boys had started by the girls, though a few fish were left raw for Happy.
As they swallowed the last few bites of their food, Lucy looked up at the sky and smiled at the stars. Her heart was a little torn, it had been awhile since she had had to break her key for Aquarius, yet she had kept that knowledge to herself. No one really noticed her lack of the key or of calling on the celestial spirit who at one point had been her only friend, though if asked Aquarius would probably deny it. "Hey Luce, are you okay?" Natsu's voice broke into her thoughts.
"Huh?" Lucy's eyes were wide as she brought her gaze from the stars to her friends, "Yeah why?" "You're crying." Natsu said softly, causing the others to look at Lucy, who quickly rubbed her eyes and said "Oh it's nothing, really, I was just looking at the stars, thinking of my Celestial Spirits." "And that made you sad?" asked Gray, not understanding. "Oh no, not really, more like I got lost in the memories." Lucy said. "So they were happy tears?" asked Wendy, to which Lucy shrugged and said "I guess, honestly I didn't even notice I was crying until Natsu told me."
Erza was about to say something, or at least she looked like she was, before someone in the shadows of the forest said "Hello in the camp, might I join you by your fire?" Lucy, not wanting her tears to be seen by some stranger, said she was going to go get water, while Erza cautiously told the traveler he could join them. As she dipped her canteen into the river, she sighed and whispered "I miss you Aquarius." Just as she was about to stand, she heard Natsu call out her name.
She turned and saw him running towards her, being chased by some magic creature or other. "Natsu! What's happening!?" She called out, with him answering "The guy was some kind of wizard, he summoned forth this one and several others, they seem to be immune to my fire, or at least this one does. I lost track of the others, but I heard you saying you were going to go get water. Quick, summon the cranky water lady and see if opposites bother it." Natsu said, finishing as he joined her by the waterside.
Lucy said, almost crying "I can't!" "You have to Lucy!" he said. Lucy just shook her head and stared at the beast that was lunging towards them. At the last second, she pushed Natsu out of the way, diving in the opposite direction. The beast, unable to change it's path fast enough fell into the river where, sure enough, it dissolved. "Looks like you were right about the water, come on, let's see if the others are alright!" Lucy said, not giving Natsu the chance to ask the question that she could see he was dying to ask.
Hopefully, by the time they found the others, he would forget about asking it. As they neared the campfire, they saw their friends had returned and were joined by two others, seeing the capes and then the pink and blue hair, Lucy realized Jellal and Meredy had joined them. "We were following this guy and lost him for a bit, but your fire led us not only to him but to you." Jellal was saying. "We weren't able to get him before he unleashed his beasts, but we were able to knock him out, which rendered the beast ineffective." Meredy said with a smile.
"I wonder if was the water or them then." Lucy pondered, as Erza smiled and said "Well we can't thank you enough for the help, won't you stay awhile, we've already eaten, but if you need something we can cook it up for you." "Thanks, but we need to keep going, he was supposed to meet someone in the next town over and we hope to catch them to. Until next time, everyone." Jellal said, before he and Meredy disappeared into the night, taking the stranger with them.
"Well that was eventful, I think I'm ready for bed." Lucy said and everyone else agreed with her, everyone that is, except Natsu. "Hey Lucy?" he said, catching the attention of not only her, but the others as well. He didn't wait for her to respond, instead he asked "Why didn't you summon Aquarius? You were by the water and had plenty of time to do so." "I told you Natsu, I can't." "Why, is today one of her off days? Did you give them another vacation?" Natsu pressed.
"Well no." Lucy said softly, really wishing he would drop the subject. But Natsu had caught on that there was something more to this, he needed to know what that was. "So why didn't you?" "I can't." she replied simply, causing Natsu's temper to rise, so he roughly said "Why not!?" "Because her key is broken, ok! It was the only way to save you guys!" Then Lucy bawled into her hands, not wanting to look at them and really taking the time to grieve the loss of her friend.
"What do you mean?" Natsu asked, after he and the others had stood there in stunned silence for a few minutes. When she didn't answer him, he gently put a hand on her shoulder and said "Luce? What do you mean?" "Remember when we were fighting Tartaros? Remember that weird stuff that grabbed everyone, including you guys? I didn't get dragged in, for whatever reason. The only way I could save you guys was by calling on the Celestial King, which Aquarius told me. But to do so, I had to break her key. I can't call on her anymore." She said softly, a sob escaping here and there.
The others looked at each other, they didn't realize how high a price had been paid that day, one that had already been too high in many of their minds. Gray had lost his father, Natsu had lost his father figure, Wendy her mother figure, they had all lost the guild and much more. "The only thing that could have made our guild reuniting any better, would be if I had her key back too. She was my first friend, my first spirit. I miss her so much." Lucy said, but then she looked up with a smile, tears still streaming down her face as she said "But at least I got all my other friends back."
They all rushed in then, giving Lucy a group hug. Lucy had paid a high price for their freedom, unknown to them, she had changed the tide of the war. Yes, they had all suffered losses that day, but everyone had known and been able to help shoulder their grief. Lucy had had to carry this alone, for over a year. "You're a stronger person then I, Lucy." Erza complimented her, causing the blonde haired girl to bring her eyes to her in surprise as well as to break away from the hug.
"Erza's right, I'm not sure how you kept that to yourself for so long, how we didn't notice you weren't calling on Aquarius at all, even though there have been other opportunities." Gray added his own thoughts. "So that's why you were crying as you looked up at the stars, you were thinking of Aquarius." Natsu stated, causing Lucy to shyly shrug her shoulders. She loved seeing everyone cared, but she felt that the others were making a big deal about nothing, after all they had suffered losses stronger than her own, in her own opinion.
As if she sensed Lucy's thoughts, Wendy said "At least I had Carla and Sherria to help with the loss of Grandeeney, just like Natsu had Happy to help with Igneel and Gray had Juvia. You were alone for the year after the guild broke up, nobody to tell how you were feeling that knew how much Aquarius meant to you. I'm sorry we let you down Lucy." "Aye." Happy said sadly. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Carla asked gently.
Lucy shrugged, putting her hands on her forearms, almost as if protecting herself from her emotions, as she said "I don't know, it was something that felt like it could be brought up out of the blue and I didn't know how to start a conversation that would lead to it. Then it just got easy, I guess you could say, to keep it to myself." Natsu put his hands on her shoulders before saying "If something like it ever happens again, please just tell us Lucy. You're always doing so much for us, let us do something for you." Lucy smiled and said "Okay."
As she rubbed a remaining tear from her eye she continued, "Would you guys mind staying up for a little while and looking at the stars with me?" Her friends all nodded, following her lead as she sat down on the ground, before laying back. Natsu lay to one side of her, while Wendy lay on the other, Happy and Carla by each of their sides. Gray flopped down next to Happy, while Erza laid down beside Carla. As they all admired the night sky, Lucy felt Natsu take her hand and give her a reassuring squeeze.
She looked over at him and he gave her his signature grin before turning his attention back to the sky. Lucy smiled, bringing her eyes back to the sky as well, before starting to point out the different constellations that were connected to not only her spirits, but many others.
Honestly, when I sat down to write this fic, I had no idea where I was going. I literally only had the Team Natsu sentence written and I was like where do I go from here? It wasn't until they were camping out and I had Lucy look at the stars that I decided to go with this story. So obviously this takes places after the guild gets back together but before the whole Zeref thing, as it would have to happen before the episode with Aquarius in it, in my mind anyways. However no particular spot was chosen on the timeline, I would say it was even pre going after the Master, so for the sake of this story lets say Mest wasn't as fast at bringing news about his whereabouts/this is slightly AU.