Months had passed and Lucy found herself taking jobs with Cana mostly. The two made a great team. They fought dark guilds and wyverns. They had undertaken search quests and protect this item jobs. There were times when both feared they would never go home, but they always pulled through and made it home. Every time they found themselves back at the guild after a mission, a tankard of beer and a strawberry smoothie waited on the bar where the two girls usually sat.

A year later, Cana was made an S-Class mage. Cana will say that it was only with Lucy's help, but Lucy will deny that and say it was Cana's willpower that made it happen. Gildarts was proud of his daughters. Yes, daughters. It was because of Lucy that Cana had grown close to him. They have a tradition, that whenever they're in town on a Sunday night, the three had dinner together. Once a week was more than what Gildarts could ask for. Gildarts was the first to shower Lucy with birthday presents that morning. Whenever he went somewhere interesting, he bought gifts for both Cana and Lucy. Over the last year and a half, the three had become a close knit family.

Another year passed, Cana and Laxus get married. Lucy was the maid of honour, of course. However, Lucy wasn't lonely, like many of her guild mates believed. She was delighted to see her beloved sister and guild mate get married. They had known each other since they were children. They belonged to each other.

Shortly after the wedding, Lucy was made S-Class. She had grown more confident. She achieved stardress. She was a very capable mage. She knew she could overcome anything. She was awesome and knew it. However, she remained humble and kind as always. She didn't want to seem like she was above any of her guild mates.

Natsu and Lisanna were on and off for the past two and half years. Natsu had tried to pretend Lucy didn't tell him off at the beginning. He pretended that nothing had happened, but he still didn't invite her on jobs like had used to. After awhile he stopped trying to pretend, he got angry and sometimes a bit physical with Lucy and even Lisanna when she tried to intervene. After the first year, he avoided her completely, refusing to acknowledge her existence.

Gray, however, tried his best to fix himself, to figure out why he pushed Lucy away and included himself into kicking her off the team. He struggled to find a reason. Maybe he was just going along with Natsu and Erza. He didn't want to hurt Lucy. He wanted to her to be happy. He isolated himself for a very long time, taking quite a few solo jobs one after another. He did the only thing he knew how to do when he was stressed, he trained. He spent a long trying to work on himself, to understand his mistakes. After a year in isolation, he returned to the guild. He was embraced back with warm arms by everyone, including Lucy. She always did have a soft spot for Gray.

Erza tried to redeem herself in the only manner possible. Immediately after Lucy's scolding, Erza apologised profusely and begged Lucy to strike her. For weeks Erza had hand delivered strawberry cakes to Lucy's front door. Lucy had forgiven her once she realised Erza was not going to let up. Plus she was running out of room in her fridge. The two girls had spent the night together, mostly Erza emotionally eating the cakes. They had talked out their issues and made up before midnight. While Erza urged her to rejoin the team, Lucy refused, saying that in order to prove her worth to the others she needed to remain independent, but assured Erza that it was not because she was still mad at Erza. To this day, they still make time for each other, sometimes just going to the bakery for lunch or the spa for the afternoon.

Lucy found herself staring at her completed manuscript. Levy had already edited it and offered her suggestions. She was finally done with it. It had taken her six years, thirteen if you counted the time skip, but she was so proud of it. Mira used her connections with Sorcerer Weekly to get in touch with a publisher that was super excited to publish her lengthy novel. Things were finally coming together. She never worried about her rent anymore. She had an awesome, albeit a tad overbearing at times, father figure. Her friendship with Erza was still intact and her and Gray were working on getting their friendship back to where it was.

It saddens her that her bond with Natsu was completely shattered, and there was no repairing it as things stood. But she had faith. She understood that she has done all she could to mend things with him, but any sort of relationship was a two way street. As things were, he wanted nothing to do with her. If, when, Natsu decided he wanted back in her life, they would have to talk about it, just like she had with Gray and Erza. Although she had long since forgiven him, it was part of her nature, she didn't know if she was ready to welcome him back with open arms. Until then, she would just have to wait and see.

Within 12 hours, I had gotten 14 stellar reviews and pleas to continue to this. It was intended to only be a short one-shot, but to wake up and see such a brilliant response to this. I am so glad you all have enjoyed it. I was so tired of seeing Lucy portrayed in such a diminishing manner. She is the reason I want to name my future daughter Lucy Rose. Rose after the kindness of Rose from Steven Universe but that aside, I am so grateful for the overwhelming response. It has actually made me want to start writing again. So thank you.

I love you all!

SnowFairyLove