A/N: Hey there peeps! I'm back with the second chapter as promised! Truthfully, I wanted to post on Thursday but the website was down. I personally really like this chapter so I hope you enjoy reading it! Thank you for the reviews, favourites, and follows! I was actually a bit disappointed that the traffic stats for the story show up as '0' views since the site was glitching. Now I have absolutely no idea how many people are even reading this *cries*. I hope it'll work this time around though~

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. I think I just suffered a double whammy from the anime and manga. Dying.


Title: Boom, Crash, 7 Years Back

Chapter 2: Elvis has left the room (or has he?)

The ride home was quiet and peaceful save for Levy's faint breathing. She had fallen asleep in no time.

"I guess Levy-chan was rather pooped out from all that socialising."

"True that!" Juvia chuckled a bit as she watched Lucy wipe some drool off Levy's mouth.

"She's such a baby sometimes," the blonde shook her head.

"You know, Lucy-san, I'm glad we've kept in touch with each other. Our whole group I mean."

"Yeah, me too. You guys are probably one of the only joys in my life right now. Oh man, this is so embarrassing to say. Imagine how Cana would react." Lucy smiled bashfully, feeling somewhat self-conscious at her sentimental remark.

"It's not embarrassing! You guys are all important people to Juvia! Well, Cana-san would probably tease us but we all know she loves us a lot too."

"Agreed!"

It was times like this that Lucy felt immeasurable happiness – It made her feel as if she could do anything. She wondered that maybe now would be the right time to ask Juvia about it.

"Hey Juvia, can I ask you something?" She fidgeted with the hem of her dress, unsure if it would ruin the mood.

"Yes, Lucy-san?"

"Back in high school . . . you liked Gray right? Do you still . . . have feelings for him?"

Juvia's breath hitched as she realized that Lucy must have heard her slip of the tongue earlier.

"Well, it'd be a lie if Juvia said that she didn't have lingering feelings for Gray . . . but these feelings that Juvia has are ones will never be reciprocated. You know, Lucy-san, Juvia confessed at the ending of high school but was rejected. But I wonder why I still haven't let it go." She probably didn't realise that she had slipped out of third person speech but her reply made Lucy sad for her friend.


Lucy was exhausted – both physically and mentally – from the reunion. Once she hit home, she made sure to take a nice long bath. She set her alarm clock after packing her bag for tomorrow's meeting and promptly slipped into bed. For some reason or another, her mind was still wide awake in spite of her earlier tiredness, buzzing with thoughts from tonight's gathering. A complicated mix of emotions filled her heart – happiness, sadness, longing, excitement and loneliness. Great. Before long, she had been tossing and turning in bed for what seemed to be . . . well, longer than an hour. The blonde grumbled, frustratingly ruffled her hair and got up from bed.

"Can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered as she opened her closet doors and began to rummage through her unpacked items. After ten minutes of sorting through her belongings, her eyes landed on a dusty but decorated wooden box. Bingo, she thought to herself. After lugging it out of her closet she brushed away the dust that had settled on the lid of the box. She hesitantly reached her hand towards it, lifting the lid away to reveal dozens of leather-bound journals that were stacked neatly against each other. The spines of each book were dated and labelled neatly in ink cursive writing. Lucy hovered her finger across the first row of books, stopping at the one that had been dated with the year '2007' before removing it from the box.

I guess this can be my 'bedtime story' for the night.

The blonde tucked herself into bed for the second time that night and began flipping through pages of the journal. Each new entry began with a 'Dear mama' and ended with a 'Good night' - each journal held hundreds of letters that she had written to her mother and tonight was the first time in a while she had bothered reading her older letters. She spent the next hour or two skimming through her recounts of her high school days, smiling at some of the things her 17 year old self had written. How nostalgic.

Deciding it was high time to go sleep, she placed the journal inside her handbag - maybe she could read it in her spare time or something. Within moments, Lucy had drifted off to sleep.


It was 11 o'clock in the morning and the conference had dragged on for maybe three hours now. The heavy atmosphere in the meeting room was enough to give anyone a sore back and Lucy was literally dying in her seat. Her ass ached, her stomach was empty and growling and the carry-over effects from last night's somewhat emotional reunion still weren't gone.

". . . And that concludes today's meeting. Please take note to fill in the sheets that were handed out earlier during the session."

Finally. Apparently there had been some sort of office politics happening with the top brass and well naturally, the conference had turned from an intended friendly discussion into a full-blown warzone – not that half the uninvolved people cared anyway but it was bad enough to give even them a headache. Lucy quickly exited the room, savouring the fresh air like lifeblood. By the time she had headed back to her office though, she was greeted with a stack of unsigned papers that had been left on her desk– so long for lunch time. Sitting down onto her swivel chair, she let her eyes scan through each and every sheet, fixing and signing areas where necessary. At this rate, I may as well be a worker robot, she thought to herself.

Without realising, her mind had once again drifted back to yesterday's happenings, eliciting a number of drawn out sighs from the blonde. A soft knock at her open door brought Lucy back to reality.

"Oh Aries, what's up?" The blonde smiled at the pink-haired girl though it was somewhat forced.

"Ah, um, yes Lucy-san, I've brought in the draft prints of next week's magazine issue for you to check over."

"Thanks, just place them on the tray to your right. I'll check them once I've finished looking through these forms."

"Um, Lucy-san, are you feeling alright? If you're unwell, then by all means feel free to take a break." Aries looked at her worriedly as she attempted to hide behind the door.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, um, you've been sighing a lot so I thought maybe something had happened – that is to say, by no means am I stating that you're unable to do your work properly but uh, um, I could always lend you an ear if you'd like to discuss anything with me," the girl began to trail off, struggling to continue the sentence. She waved her hands in the air defensively as if to apologize for what she had said.

'Was I that obvious?' Theblonde wondered to herself. She hadn't realized that she was so hung up on the reunion so perhaps discussing it with Aries would be helpful. Maybe it'd help to get the opinions of a third party after all.

"I'll take you up on that offer, then." She smiled back at Aries, gesturing for her to take a seat. It'd been a while since she last had a heart-to-heart conversation with anyone at all about this issue. The last time was probably . . . some years ago with Levy and co. when they were all drunk at Cana's broken-heart party. She wondered if they remembered it at all.

"Well, you see, Aries – last night I attended my high school reunion. That's what I've been hung up on all day."

"Really? A high school reunion? It must have been fun!"

"To be exact - that's the thing. I should have had fun but I didn't. I reconnected with a lot of my old classmates and maybe it's just me, but seeing where we all are now, it makes me feel somewhat lonely. It made me realize that everyone's moved on from the past. We're no longer the free-spirited and ignorant youth that we once were. We're not allowed to be. We're adults, we have jobs, and we have responsibilities. I miss what we once had but I know it's all just a memory." Lucy stopped to face Aries, looking like a lost child that needed solutions to a problem she didn't know how to fix.

"Lucy-san, why do you have to be so pessimistic? Your friends couldn't have changed all that much – they may be adults now but surely that doesn't mean that you can't still have fun like in the past. Maybe it's precisely because they haven't changed in that respect that makes you miss what you once had. It's not gone; it's not lost; everything is here, right where you are. Perhaps what you need is not a time machine, but the courage to move forward."

The blonde smiled defeatedly at her secretary. "Aries, since when did you become such a good speaker? Maybe you should take my place in meetings." She chuckled a bit when the girl began to launch into a flurry of panicked objections.

"I'm just kidding," she teased before continuing to speak again, "Maybe what I told you was only a half truth. You see, I have many things that I regretted in my final year of high school. Back then, I was focused on my future so I spent much of my time studying. I believed that as long as I fulfilled my set goals, I would achieve happiness. But look at me now – I've gotten where I wanted to be, the life I've mapped out for myself has all but been accomplished, but why is it that I feel not even a single speck of happiness? It all just feels like wasted effort. No, maybe I'm just using this as an excuse. I was a coward who didn't know how to try. I should have cherished that time – how many opportunities had I missed? I can't even count it with all the fingers on my two hands. I'm stuck – stuck in a past where I was only an observer to the many events that unfolded." For the first time ever, Lucy had let it all out. She had just admitted to herself everything she had bottled up in her broken little heart for seven years. Her chocolate orbs stung with tears that she had stubbornly refused to ever let spill and she let herself fall into the motherly embrace Aries offered.

Continuing to comfort the blonde, Aries spoke again, "It's okay Lucy-san. It's only natural to yearn for what is lost but isn't it a pity to spend your future wishing for the past? You can't change what has happened, but the road in front of you is full of many possible paths. You can't return but you can start again, right here, right now. Think of it as a new beginning. I'm not asking you to forget, but I'm asking you to think of what lies ahead. In the end, you only regret the chances you didn't take – so now, why don't you go ahead and take all the possible chances you can?"

Lucy sniffled a little before looking up at Aries, "Aries, you're like a mum."

"A what?!" The pink-haired lady was taken off guard.

"You feel motherly. I lost my mother when I was young so I can't really say it well but I feel somewhat loved." She smiled softly and spoke again, "Hmmm. . . starting afresh – I like the sound of that! Maybe I should look for a new hobby to do? What do you think?"

"I think that's a great idea!"


It was the afternoon now and Lucy had finished up work a while ago. Skimming through her journal as she walked home, she pondered what she would do next. There was a novel she'd been writing but had neglected for quite a while but her inspiration was dry. Maybe she could try flower arranging or something? Was there a workshop nearby? Wasn't there an institute around the city where you could attend two hour courses for barista and bartending certificates? That sounded interesting though the blonde wondered if she'd ever have a use for those anyway. 'Well, you never know what the future holds I guess,' She thought to herself, remembering Aries' words. She should probably look this stuff up on the internet once she got home. She could even rope Juvia or someone else into joining her. As countless ideas swam through her mind, Lucy couldn't help but feel a weird sense of happiness and fulfilment. So much so that she didn't even register the playful shouts of children whose school day had ended, the rampant barking of the neighbourhood dog or the sounding of police sirens. She was lost in the adventures of her own world, humming to the sound of her heart.

Before long, she was already facing her house, separated only by the asphalt road. The feeling of excitement and anticipation bubbled up inside her as she began to cross the street - this was probably the most optimistic and motivated she had been in a long time. The way everything was just falling into place felt strangely odd – almost wrong and she was right when the thought crossed her mind. But it was too late. She was abruptly pulled away from her musings as the screeching of tyres, comparable to the sound of fingernails against a chalkboard, assaulted her ears. Almost immediately, she turned to face the source of the noise and all she saw was the white paint of a car because everything else was a blur. In a matter of seconds, the leather-bound journal that was held snugly in the blonde's hands had been flung into the air, her handbag was on the ground, and a loud thud could be heard. Panicked screams and shouts of bystanders could be heard and the police sirens were louder than ever.

"Someone call the ambulance! A girl's been hit!"

"Hello! Can you hear me? What's your name? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"She's losing lots of blood! Has anyone phoned yet? When are they coming?!"

"Leave some space! She needs to breathe!"

There was a mixture of unfamiliar voices – some panicked, some reassuring and others anxious but in spite of the cacophony, all Lucy could feel was the pain that racked her entire body. Everything was a haze and her breathing was irregular and heavy.

"Lucy?! Let me through, I know her! What on earth happened? This can't be happening!" The blonde felt someone grip her hand strongly and she felt a strange warmth that wasn't hers – did she know them? It was no good, she couldn't register anything. At this point, the pain had already numbed but she knew it was still there.

"Come on, stay with me here – everything's going to be alright."

That was a lie and they all knew it. The ruckus surrounding her continued but to Lucy it sounded like hushed background noise. She felt like an observer to her own accident and this only signalled to her approaching end. The world was a cruel place, but really – did she even care anymore?

Just as she was about to raise the white flag she was reminded of her father – Jude. How long had it been since she last visited him? New Years? Wasn't it his birthday soon? Since moving out, she hadn't spent nearly as much time with him as she had before. She must have been stupid to realize this now. What was the point anyway? It would only add to her list of regrets. Speaking of regrets, she had a lot of those. She may have been successful in name but to her, she led a life of failure. As if she had turned on a broken tap, memories of her lifetime played through her mind.

She remembered all these things she had wanted to do but hadn't. Why didn't she join that writing competition? It wouldn't have mattered to her if she had won or lost anyway. Why didn't she stand up for herself when some bullies mocked her artwork? That had taken her hours to finish. Why didn't she raise her hand in class when she knew the answer? Why did she always silently agree with everyone else? Why didn't she talk to Natsu when she had the chance? Why did she not have the courage her parents did?

'Why am I realizing all of this only when it's too late?'

If she had a second chance then she'd be able to rewrite her wrongs but Lucy knew that was an impossible wish.

'This is stupid,' she thought to herself and everything faded to black.


"Lucy! Lucy! Wake up, rise and shine! Hello? Awake yet sleepy head? I'm coming in!"

Chocolate eyes fluttered open.

"Oh god, I had the worst nightmare ever," the blonde mumbled as she placed her hand over her face.

"Oh Lucy, you're already up! Hurry up and take a shower. The breakfast is going to get cold and you'll be late for school."

Said blonde did a double-take as her head snapped to her open door. Lo and behold, standing there at the doorway was Jude, wearing a white and navy-striped apron and armed with a spatula in his hand.

"DAD?!" Lucy literally tumbled out of bed.

"YES LUCY?!"

"This isn't real. It can't be." Ignoring her dad's teasing reply, the blonde surveyed her surroundings. The floor was wooden and the walls were decorated with a vanilla and blue-coloured floral wallpaper. To the corner stood a wooden white shelf, filled with novels and textbooks. Not far from the shelf was a cosy study nook . A neatly ironed uniformed hung from the fitted hooks on the wall beside it.

'No way.'

Her eyes flitted to the calendar that sat on her desk, widening in response when they saw the dated year '2007'.


A/N: SURPRISE! So the time-travel happened! I'm laughing evilly now because I think I just left you with a possible cliffhanger. Shucks. Did anyone expect the time-travel to happen this way? I totally avoided the time machine route (it wasn't even considered) because that would mean that Lucy had control over her situation. Ohohohoho, I feel sorry for the Lucy in my fanfic but the show must go on.

Also, can anyone guess the identity of person who helped Lucy when she was struck by the car? I left a clue! Be a sleuth kids! Please review! I need to boost my ego and your opinions and general input would help with a lot of things! Reward meh plezzzzz *insert gross slime moment*.

Also, Senbei and I are needing more feedback for if you would like an alternate version of this story where Lucy does not time-travel. We've only gotten one feedback (thank you little angel)! WHAT.

Until next time then. Cup Ramen signing off!