Star Light, Star Bright

Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima

A/N: Thanks everybody for your support and appreciation for my story idea. It really means a lot to me that people are so interested by what I've started and it's encouraged me to keep going with this and put a few of my other stories on the back burner. Thanks everybody!

The Star of Morning

Lucy reached her hand across the silky smooth silver sheets as she cracked open her gritty eyes, a souvenir from her late night stargazing. Deep inside she felt her heart fall when all that met her stroking hand was cold, unrumpled sheets. Shaking her head as she dragged herself upright and sat on the edge of her wide bed, she rubbed her eyes trying to clear away the remnants of the prior night's tears.

Taking a deep breath she held it then let it out in an explosive burst from her lungs. She needs to be on top of her game today, her act at the guild needs to be flawless lest her perceptive friends catch wind of the heart ache that threatens to pull her under.

"He stayed away again?"

Feeling the tug on her magic Lucy looks up into black eyes burning with an inner flame and flecked with silver pinpricks that mirror the night sky. For all that his words were a question, his deeply rumbling voice made it more of a statement. His pale skin was almost iridescent with only a few tell-tale scales paneling his cheekbones and above his eyebrows. Flame-red hair with streaks of orange, yellow, white, and blue spiked up uncontrollably in the front and poured down his back before coming to a stop above his beltline in a fall of living flame. His frame was tall, taller than any other she's ever met excepting the Spirit King and Elfman, but it was ridged and ripped with muscle rather than packed with thick slabs.

But for all of that, it was his clothes that gave him away when they first met and would give him away to anyone in Earthland that met him. Light like silk and with a bright jewel sheen, the tight black pants and flowing black tunic were made of dragonscales with flecks of every color under the sun.

"He always stays away now." She told Draco, the Dragon Spirit. Despite being gifted his key after closing the portal while she was recovering – temporarily – in the Celestial Realm, she's never called him forward. He just comes, taking away a small fragment of the desolation she's felt in the growing distance between herself and her Slayer friends.

Of course if those Slayer friends ever got close to her these days they would smell a dragon all over her, Draco's scent being pretty much ingrained into her after all the time he's spent keeping her company and teaching her to better control and utilize her evolved powers.

Now there's a conversation she really doesn't want to have.

Because she doesn't have enough territorial males in her life the Dragon Key had to be a guy and not just any guy but one so frustratingly male that he's guaranteed to set off the Slayers in ways Loke never has. Natsu would get irritated over the Lion's flirtatious ways but that will be nothing compared to how all three of them will react to Draco.

Or rather the old Natsu would get irritated.

As little time as she's spent with the Slayers since returned from the Celestial Realms, they probably won't even notice a new male spending time with her. Let alone care.

Taking hold of one of Lucy's elegant hands, Draco hauled her to her feet and pushed her towards the bathroom.

"Shower." He ordered, frustrated with the miasma that her friends' recent neglect has spread over the normally optimistic and cheerful woman. While his service is new, his awareness of the woman Leo has dubbed his "Princess" is not. Watching over Lucy is a common activity for the more powerful spirits since the spell over Tenroujima was broken.

Not a single spirit wants to lose her again, not for any amount of time, she is their morning and evening star.

"We're doing something different today." He called through the solid bathroom door as he moved into her closet to pick out something pretty but appropriate for her to wear. Quickly he took down a pair of tough but sexy leather pants, knee high boots without a heel, and a finely-crafted chain-mail halter, all in matte black. The thin strip of flesh between the shirt and pants would be fine and since her magic changed Lucy no longer has to wear a key pouch on her black weapon's belt, her keys being kept in a secured pocket of the Celestial Realm.

Walking out of the bathroom wrapped in her robe and toweling her hair dry, Lucy just raised a brow at the outfit laying on her bed as she heard Draco puttering about in the kitchen. Studying it she smirks. She'll look like her Edolas doppelgänger, Lucy Ashley: Supreme Ass-Kicker of Fairy Tail.

"What's this something different?" She asked him, not needed to raise her voice to be heard with his heightened senses.

"We're going to your guild together." He answered as she walks dressed into the kitchen, putting up her hair as she goes. "I think it's time you took a solo mission."

"There's no way they'll let me." She said matter-of-factly. "They've been walking on eggshells around me and babying me ever since I got back from your world, thinking that I've been permanently weakened or something. No way they'll let me take a solo job."

Draco just gives her a dragony smile filled with shiny teeth and sharp canines.

"We'll see."

Lucy balances carefully along the canal edge with Plue tottering behind her, her cheerful dog spirit changing places with Draco before they left the apartment. The last thing she needs in her life now that she's gone from just another member of the infamously-destructive Team Natsu to the quite-famous "Celestial Queen" as Sorcerer's Weekly as dubbed her following the disastrous end to the Grand Magic Games, is Draco following her around Magnolia and giving the reporters new material to speculate on her love life with.

The young and admittedly-naïve mage she used to be would've no doubt enjoyed all the intrusive attention that she's gotten alongside the Slayers and the now-pardoned Jellal for their involvement in saving the world from a hundred pissed-off and displaced dragons. A media frenzy that was only fed by her apparent "disappearance" while she was in the Celestial Realm since as far as the non-Guild members know is that she was gone for months with her Guild being uncharacteristically closed-mouthed regarding her location. By the time she resurfaced the reporters and paparazzi had had enough of being growled at and intimidated by the Slayers and were ready for a new topic to focus on: her.

Yippee.

And some of the Guild wonders why she spends so much time either shut-in at her apartment or training away from any sign of civilization.

Lucy banishes her unhappy thoughts of her invaded privacy as the large Guild Hall came into view, Master Makarov having promptly purchased it back following their win at the GMG. Smiling at Plue she sends him back to his world with a hug before slipping around to the back of the guild, wanting to avoid the inevitable brawls that always spring up in the main hall. Spying her favorite bar stool empty, Lucy darts around a whirling ball of who-knows-who fighting over who-knows-what and settles herself in with a sigh and a bright grin for Mira.

"Good morning, Mira!" She said, happily catching no sight of any of the now five Slayers that make Fairy Tail their home with the addition of Cobra. No dragon noses anywhere to question her.

"Good morning, Lucy!" Mira answered with a happy smile.

"Can I get a strawberry smoothie, please?"

Mira's smile shot from happy to ecstatic over the request, taking it as a sign that "their" Lucy is finally coming back to them. She hasn't asked for anything as simple as water since coming back with Loke. For months she's darted into the Guild, usually while it's nearly empty, and up to the Master's office and then back out of the Guild again before anyone could really register she was here at all. And those brief appearances only came about rarely, with Loke acting as a go-between for Lucy and Master for month after month.

No one is sure the extent of the damage or the consequences of Lucy's Song that closed the gate or using her to power it in the first place but every member of Fairy Tail has felt her absence deeply.

Even if there are a handful that have felt it deeper than the rest.

"Of course!" Mira shook off her reverie, quickly preparing the requested drink and setting it down in front of her blonde friend. "What brings you to the Guild today, Lucy? Finally tired of staring at the walls in your apartment?" She teased her gently.

"Something like that." Lucy chuckled as she sipped at her smoothie. She hopes that this goes as smoothly as Draco seems to think it will.

"Well I'm glad to see you." Mira told her with a gentle look in her eyes. "Whatever the reason."

Lucy caught her breath for a minute at the understanding pouring from the Guild's resident "big sister." Even if no one else ever forgives her for distancing herself from the Guild for a time while she dealt with the fallout of her choices, having Mira on her side means a lot to her.

"It's wonderful to see you, Mira." Lucy replied beaming. They chatted lightly as Mira worked the bar, polishing glasses and ducking the occasional missile launched from one fight or another.

It's just another ordinary day in Fairy Tail, made all the brighter by their Celestial Mage once again joining them, even if hardly anyone has noticed the change brought about by her presence they all feel it.

Thanking Mira for the smoothie and the conversation Lucy moves over to the large request board. Rather than the nearly-empty thing from before the Games, this one is once again overflowing with requests for the country's top Guild. Running her eyes lightly over the various requests that range from the simple to the outrageous Lucy searches out the one Loke told Draco about following the Lion spirit's visit to the Guild yesterday.

There it is.

Taking it down carefully, Lucy ran the heavy vellum between her fingers.

Help!

Bandits are destroying my tenants' crops and stealing their livestock.

Apprehend the outlaws and turn them into the Magic Council.

Location: Duke Duncastle's holdings (Between Crocus and Magnolia)

REWARD: 100,000j and two silver Celestial Keys

The reward isn't that great since it would normally be a two-to-three person job but the silver keys make it worth her time and trouble, she hoped. New friends are always worth her time.

Nodding briskly to herself she decided to try for it. The worst Master could say it no.

"No." Makarov sat with his arms folded sternly over his chest as he swung his legs back and forth over the edge of the desk that he's sitting upon rather than behind. "Absolutely not."

"But, Master…" Lucy said wheedling.

"No, Lucy." He shook his head slowly, a deep frown carving lines into his pugnacious face. "I can't allow it. You're still recovering. Wendy said that it would be months if not years before you will be completely recovered from your ordeal. I will not allow you to take any solo missions."

Lucy gave a frustrated groan. "Wendy." She said letting her irritation show. "Doesn't know anything about either my condition or my ordeal. I was taken by Loke to the Celestial Realm for a reason. Do you really think any of them would've let me come back before I was healed?"

Makarov can't dispute that, although he's tempted to try. As one of the Ten Wizard Saints he knows much about the many, many different types of Magic but Celestial Magic is so rare as to be a Lost Magic and little is known outside of the ever-dwindling circle of Celestial Mages. With Yukino's death, his sweet Lucy is believed to possibly be one of the last mages of her kind left on Earthland. Celestial Mages are more secretive regarding some aspects of their Magic than any other, even Dragon Slayers.

"Then tell me why you've refused all offers of missions since you've returned to us, child." Makarov said carefully.

Closing her eyes, Lucy gave a sigh. Somehow she thought it would come to this.

"My magic…changed. Evolved. Because of my 'ordeal' I had to relearn almost everything about being a Celestial Mage. In fact I'm not strictly considered a Celestial Mage any more in the traditional sense." She held up one hand, stopping him when he would've interrupted and asked questions she doesn't want to answer at the moment. "The time since I came back has been used training and centering myself all over again. Something that would have been impossible with my former team or anyone else around but me and my spirits to distract and hinder me."

That was something Makarov could understand. Natsu is problematic on his best days…and lately those have been few and far between.

"My child…"

"Please, Master." Lucy broke in quietly. "If I think I'm over my head I'll return before completing the mission. But I need to be tested in a real situation, not in a controlled environment with my spirits. I have to know what I can do now. I have to know."

"Very well, my child." Makarov stared at her with sad eyes. "If you won't take another with you, at least take a communication lacrima in case you should need assistance beyond that of your spirits."

Watching as he noted the mission under her name in his copy of the guild's job register, Lucy agreed. A lacrima was infinitely preferable to an extra person that might get in the way or worse, be injured if Lucy either isn't powerful enough to do the job alone or if her control weakens and injures a bystander. At least if she loses it around a bunch of bandits, there's going to be no innocents around for collateral damage.

She hopes.