"LUCY!"

The familiar shout was accompanied with a haphazard BANG as the Guild's doors flew open and Natsu Dragneel came rushing in, flanked by his flying blue Exceed.

He slid to a halt just inside the doors, eyes skimming the crowd. A cross-legged Cana drinking straight from the barrel. Macao and Wakaba beside her, laughing. The matching white hair of Lisanna and Elfman Strauss. Shirtless Gray, drinking at the bar. Erza dipping a fork into a slice of cake.

He frowned. The head of blonde hair he'd been searching for was nowhere to be seen.

"Erza, Gray!" Happy cried, soaring over to the bar, "Have you seen Lucy?"

"Did you two check her house?" Gray asked condescendingly over a bare shoulder.

Natsu eyed him. "Are you ever wearin' clothes?"

"Can it, flame-brain!"

"Aye, Gray," Happy said, before a real fight could commence, "We checked. But she wasn't there!

"Yeah!" Natsu agreed, "And a bunch of her clothes were missing!"

Suddenly, Lisanna turned from her conversation with her brother and sister, looking a little disturbed. "You search her closet whenever she's not home?"

"Of course we do!" Natsu crossed his arms. "Annoying Lucy's an art. You gotta be willin' to do whatever it takes."

"Aye, sir! And that includes putting on her clothes before she gets home!"

Lisanna gaped.

"I highly doubt Lucy appreciates that behavior," Pantherlily put in, standing cross-armed on one of the Guild Hall tables before Gajeel.

Natsu had already stopped listening, and was scratching his head. "I don't get it," he groaned. "Where'd Lucy go?"

Setting down her fork with a concerned frown, Erza suggested, "Maybe she took a job?"

"She better not have! Takin' a job without her partners…but good thinkin', Erza! Yo, Mira!" Natsu darted over to the bar. Slamming his palms down on the wood, he leaned forward to ask, "Did Lucy accept a job request?"

It was Mira's refusal to meet his eyes that served as Natsu's first hint that something was very, very wrong. He watched as she set down the cloth she'd been wiping the counter with, and said, quietly, "No, Natsu. But she was here this morning."

"Did she tell you where she was going?" Happy asked, beginning to look worried.

From the end of the bar: "She is gone."

The eyes of almost everyone in the guild turned to Master Makarov, a sudden silence settling over the usually-loud guild hall.

"What do you mean, 'gone'?" Natsu asked, confused and irritated, "Mira just said she didn't—"

"Lucy left this," Makarov cut him off, pulling a red envelope out of his pocket.

Instantly, Natsu's back straightened. He froze, staring wide-eyed at the address line, which he could read from his current position:

To: Fairy Tail's Strongest Team

Gray was quicker to respond. Stepping off his barstool and walking around Natsu, he snatched the envelope, yanked it open, and unfolded the letter inside. There was silence as everyone in the guild hall watched him read it, his expression indecipherable. At length, he ducked his head. His eyes were shadowed beneath his dark bangs when he shoved the letter at Natsu.

The dragon slayer's eyes grew wide as they traced the words:

To Gray, Natsu, Erza, and Happy:

Since I want to be a writer, you'd think I could come up with words to say this in a way that would make it easier, somehow, but I'm drawing a blank.

We may be Fairy Tail's strongest team, but I am our team's weakest member. I don't want to hold you guys back anymore! There are also some things I have to work out.

Which is why I'm going on a trip. I probably won't be back for a year or so.

Don't—for a second—blame yourselves. This is my choice; it's something I have to do. I'm going to become strong so I can help you guys. It hurts to leave you, and I'm going to miss you all so much, but I've realized that I can't keep going on this way. Something's got to give.

Keep living the way you have been—with courage, spirit, determination, and humor. Just knowing the team I love being a part of is out there, continuing our legacy of shenanigans and victories will make this all so much easier.

I've never forgotten the three conditions for anyone who leaves Fairy Tail; you began to engrave them upon my heart the moment I met you.

And that's why, for as long as I live, I will never divulge Fairy Tail's secrets to outsiders.

I will not have unauthorized contact with previous clients for personal gain.

And above all, I promise, even as we walk different paths, I will live on as strong as I am able! I will never treat my own life as insignificant! And for as long as I live, I will never forget the friends I love.

I won't forget you, not for a single moment, until the day I return.

Always,

Lucy of Fairy Tail."

When Natsu read it, he balled it into his fist, gritting his sharp teeth and trying to force the tears springing to his eyes to stay inside.

The next thing he knew, a fist collided with his skull, and he was lying face first on the ground, stars skating and swirling across his vision.

"Don't ruin it, you idiot!"

That was Gray's voice, cold, angry, and—almost imperceptibly—woven with emotion as he stood above Natsu. He held the now-crumpled letter up and away from its offender.

For once, Natsu didn't jump at the insult Gray threw at him, instead choosing to stay on the ground even as Erza calmly took the letter from his outstretched hand. When her eyes had traced Lucy's last words, they closed, but not before the tears sprung to her left eye.

"I see," she said softly.

At this, Natsu leapt to his feet. "What's to see? We have to go find her, right now!"

His outburst was met with three matching visages: Erza, Makarov, and Gray's bowed heads and closed eyes. Behind the counter, Mira was tight-lipped as she wiped furiously at the counter, misty eyes slanted down and away.

Natsu looked around at them all, dumbfounded.

Clenching his teeth, he shouted, "Lucy is part of Fairy Tail! She belongs here, with us! With her family!"

"Even devoted members of the Guild leave for long stretches of time, Natsu. Look at Gildarts." Erza didn't look at him as she spoke.

The sense in her words only increased the temperature of his blood.

"So what? This is different!"

"How?" Gray asked pointedly.

"Lucy isn't Gildarts! What if something happens to her, and we aren't there to protect her?"

This point was met with a brief silence. Every face in the guild hall took on a strained quality. The thought of the dreamy, optimistic blonde being hurt set anyone who knew her cringing.

It was Makarov who spoke up, then. "You underestimate the girl, Natsu. In a pinch, Lucy would step up to the challenge. I believe she is more powerful than any of us here ever saw, but more importantly, she was unable to see it. On this journey, she may learn to recognize her own inner strength."

At this, Natsu straightened from the fighting stance he had unconsciously assumed, wide-eyed. "No…I never doubted Lucy's strength. She's tougher than anyone!"

"And yet," Makarov cut him off, "You jumped to protect her at every turn. You always served as a barrier between her and the cruelty of the world, and that is a role not even the people who love you most can always fill. She knew that."

Happy sat on the bar near Mira, looking between Master Makarov and Natsu with worried, dish-sized eyes. His tail drooped sadly.

Natsu sucked a breath in past his teeth, clenching his fists. "She protected me, too!" he shouted, "We were best friends! We were there for each other! We could've helped each other get stronger. I could've…"

He trailed off, screwing up his eyes and clenching his fists more tightly. Gray and Erza could hear the straining of his teeth as he ground them.

"You watched her leave, didn't you?" he burst suddenly at Makarov. His eyes were furious charcoal disks, fixed upon Makarov. "You could have stopped her, could have gotten me, but you did nothing! You just watched her leave! What the hell, Gramps? I thought we were family! I thought Fairy Tail meant something!"

"Natsu," Erza warned, voice low and disapproving.

Her threat was ignored. "Whatever," Natsu snarled. "I'm done listenin' to this fungus. C'mon, Happy, we're gettin' Lucy back."

"Aye," Happy said, but the agreement lacked its usual gusto.

They watched Natsu storm out of the guild.


Not much later, Gray and Erza sat across from one another at one of the tables in the guild hall. Plates of foot were laid out before them, untouched. They stared down at them wordlessly.

Finally, Gray voiced his concerns on the topic occupying both of their thoughts. "Natsu won't find Lucy—at least not anytime soon. She didn't tell us where she was going, and I'm guessing she went by train. He couldn't possibly sniff her out."

Erza bowed her head slightly. She'd already surmised as much. "How could I have been so blind?" she asked, clenching a fork in her gloved fist. Gray was mildly surprised it didn't snap in half. "There must have been some sign she was going to do this. Some indication that she was thinking…that she felt…" She trailed off.

Gray looked up at her. "Lucy may act cheerful and hot-headed, but she hides what she's actually feeling really well. She probably just didn't want any of us to worry. It's not your fault, Erza."

Erza turned away, recognizing the truth in his words even as the guilt continued to weigh upon her.

"This is my decision; I have to do this," the letter had read.

Titania, Queen of the Fairies, closed her eyes. Above anyone, maybe, she could understand the need to find your strength.

You will be missed, Lucy. The thought was heavy with emotion. More than you know.

On the other side of the table, Gray was remembering:

Shouting at Lucy while she curled up inside her clock spirit. "Hey, lazy! Try walking for yourself!" Watching one of her crazy celestial spirits dig "booby traps" for her, as Lucy surveyed, hands on her hips.

A bitter chuckle escaped him.

What are we going to do without you?

Her beaming face flashed before his mind's eye, winking and shooting him a thumbs up.

Natsu may be an idiot, but he's right, you know. You're tougher than anybody.


He traced her to the hill where she had stopped to say her final goodbyes, and then to the train station. But when he and Happy had asked every worker there, and not one of them remembered a blonde matching the description they gave, they returned to the hill.

Natsu stared out over Magnolia, remembering the funny skit Lucy had put on just the day before. It hadn't made Aquarius or Happy laugh, but that was just because they didn't appreciate a good joke! Lucy as a prince…she'd acted like the kind of prince Natsu would have expected her to be in real life, choosing to take a nap with the sleeping beauty instead of waking her up with a kiss. The only inaccuracy had been that Natsu was laughing from the side instead of being a part of her shenanigans.

He clenched his fists at his side.

"I am our team's weakest member."

All the words in the entire letter made him want to burn it, but those words, specifically, bothered him. He had told Lucy that he wanted her to be part of the team. That he thought she was great and nice, and that the team wasn't the same without her. She wasn't the weakness of the team; she was its strength!

He knew she had her reasons for leaving, but it was hard for Natsu to wrap his head around them. Happy seemed to be a little more accepting of the whole thing, sitting on his shoulder and just letting the tears fall. He was processing, taking the pain in stride. But Natsu just felt overwhelming hurt and confusion, not that he ever would have admitted it. There was some bridge he hadn't crossed, some important thing he hadn't realized.

He thought of the shining, powerful lights Lucy had brought plummeting from the sky into the arena at the Grand Magic Games; her hand latched onto his wrist at the last second as he began to fall from an impossible height; the few smart, poetic words he'd managed to read from her pieces on the desk in her room; her surprising strength as she sent him and Happy flying from her apartment; her dazzling smile.

All of his memories told him that Lucy wasn't weak, that she was, in fact, the opposite. But if he'd thought for a second she'd felt weak, he would have helped her get stronger. He would have trained with her—anyone in the Guild would have!

She was out there, somewhere. Was she on a train? Or had she already reached her intended destination—a destination she hadn't bothered to disclosed to the friends who loved her?

The well of hurt in Natsu's chest deepened.

He gritted his teeth.

"I ain't givin' up on you, Lucy. I'll keep lookin'. But if I don't find you…if…" He faltered, then his voice came back, stronger, "You better come back here, just like you were!"

Happy's tears were beginning to soak through his vest.