So, hey, hello, hi. I guess I'm back, maybe, hopefully. I've done some explaining in my bio, but the reader's digest version is that my past stories are discontinued but will remain up (perhaps I'll rewrite them if there's enough demand).
As for this story, I don't want to say too much, and I don't want to promise anything, but the game plan is to update every other Friday, except this one time, where, because this is just the prologue and it's super short, I plan on updating next Friday (March 22, 2019). Again, no promises and this is subject to change depending on how life/motivation/writer's block goes.
Also, yes, this is the best title I could think of, and, yes, I took it from you know what. I may do some more explaining at the start of next chapter if anyone has any questions.
Summary: One interaction was all it took for their relationship to blossom; however, one more was all it took for it to wither.
Prologue
The X791 Grand Magic Games had just ended, as had the whole ordeal involving the Eclipse Gate. Lucy Heartfilia of Fairy Tail couldn't feel any happier to put all of that behind her, all the turmoil she and her friends had suffered through the past week. In the end, as she had always believed, her guild came out on top, and showed all of Fiore that all the mocking and insulting that the guild was subjected to during Team Tenrou's seven year absence was ill considered, and that Fairy Tail had no intention of stopping their comeback or halting their rise back to the top.
Lucy felt especially proud of her teammates who, in the past week, defied all odds and conquered the other teams as an unstoppable force on the last day of the Games. Of course, she was a little disappointed that she had missed the spectacle, but she had been a little too preoccupied with trying to regain her freedom, let alone trying to just stay alive. However, the past was the past, and Lucy had to focus on the future.
That task proved difficult for her, though. Even though the Games had ended, even though the Eclipse was behind her, and even though she had to return to Magnolia tomorrow after a wonderful evening at the Great Banquet with all of the other guilds, Lucy still could not get one certain mage out of her mind.
The obnoxious blond had first infiltrated her thoughts and re-entered her life when she and Natsu were out in Crocus before the Games had started. He had acted so cruelly and cockily; it infuriated her. His whole demeanor seemed unrecognizable to her. He appeared as a whole different person to her, different from what he had been not too long ago.
She tried to get him out of her head, tried to remove the thought of him from her mind. Sadly, no matter how much she tried, his invading presence lingered.
Lucy sighed, and looked up from the ground and up at the sky. It was a chilly night in Crocus, yet also a perfectly peaceful one. She was the only one around, but that didn't surprise her—time was stretching into the very late hours of the night, and any sane person would rather rest at this hour than sit in silence at the park atop a hill right outside the city.
In attempts to change her thoughts, she tried to spot whichever constellations she could as if she were trying to spot her spirits. Of course, she spotted all that were visible in no time, and, after a triumphant second, she cursed herself as her mind trailed back to the painful thoughts she had tried avoiding.
Sighing once more, Lucy returned to facing the ground, only to jerk her head up to the left after hearing footsteps approaching from that direction. She took a sharp breath and stopped. After some moments, she exhaled as a figure took a seat next to her on the bench. She returned to staring at the ground.
The two sat there in deafening silence, each one not knowing what to say. One stared down, the other stared ahead.
After several more moments, the latter took a deep breath, and then spoke. "I'm sure you're wondering what I'm doing here, why I came to you."
Lucy made an effort not to reply. She didn't see the point, nor did she think he deserved a response. She gripped the edge of the bench with her hands. It took all of her willpower not to say anything. She found it painfully ironic, how she desired so little to interact with him and yet it was so trying not to.
The man next to Lucy sighed. "I see you're not in the mood to talk, so maybe we shouldn't."
The silence continued.
After some time, the man sighed once more, and move his hand, placing it atop Lucy's. Lucy froze, and then reluctantly pulled away, much to the other's dismay. She took a long breath, held it for a moment, and then exhaled, attempting to prevent herself from shedding tears.
Soon thereafter, she finally succumbed to the temptation, her mind losing to her heart, and returned her hand to his. After a pause, she looked up and turned to face the figure to her side. He was staring back at her, each pair of eyes affixed on the other.
Lucy couldn't hold it back anymore—a single tear flowed down her left cheek, and she asked the question that she had been dying to learn the answer to.
"Why, Sting?"