Erza was the first to go.
She'd busted through Lucy's door at the crack of noon, breaking the lock and declaring they were going to have a girl's day, which had consisted of mostly shopping at places she couldn't afford, and trying out new bakeries she also couldn't afford, culminating in a nice cup of tea at Lucy's place.
The requip mage waited until Lucy was mid-first-sip to drop the news on her like a mountain of luggage.
"I'm leaving for a job soon. It's across the mountains, so I'll be gone from Magnolia for a while."
It wasn't anything new. Erza was always off working on jobs when the guild was together, and it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that she had been recruited for a job again so soon. Wizards like the Titania would never hurt for work.
But it did surprise Lucy. She nearly choked on the too hot tea burning its way down her throat as Erza hurried to explain further.
"But you're more than welcome to come along Lucy! I know Natsu isn't...er, available, per se, but that shouldn't stop the rest of the team from taking jobs together, right? Unfortunately, Gray is away and this is a matter of utmost urgency to the citizens of Desert Village so we couldn't possibly wait, but we could do it together just us! Who could stop two such powerful women?!" Erza exclaimed, bringing her fist down on Lucy's coffee table in the process. A crack appeared down the table without the redhead noticing. Lucy could feel sweat pop out all over her skin at the thought of her doing it again.
Or the thought of traveling with Erza without Gray or Natsu as a buffer. She cringed a bit just thinking about it.
Don't get Lucy wrong, she loved Erza. She was the most powerful woman Fiore had ever seen! And really a sweetheart deep down. But anyone working with her was expected to follow orders and never fail, and her expectations were seldom reasonable. The boys of their team had learned when they could and couldn't get away with ignoring her ridiculous side, but Lucy just wasn't strong enough to work with Erza the way they did (one annoyed punch wouldn't just knock her out, but probably send her to the hospital too). She had to grow a lot stronger before she could stand up alone next to the Titania. So Lucy let her down easy.
"No, Erza, I think I'm doing more good here right now. I'm gonna stick around and help finish the cleanup effort at the guild. Plus, Levy and I were going to maybe do some cataloging in the library while we've got the downtime! But thank you for offering!" Lucy smiled brightly, trying to ignore the part of her itching to join her friend and go out on an adventure. Briefly an image of Natsu reaching out his hand to her to take her to Fairy Tail came to her. It was hard not to associate adventure with a particular dragon slayer. She subconsciously rubbed her stomach with one hand as something twisted in her gut. Maybe she'd had too much cake that day.
Yeah, that had to be it.
"Well, if you say so Lucy. You know I would love to have you along, but I would never force you to do something you didn't want to."
Lucy tried not to laugh as she remembered the many things Erza had forced her and her fellow teammates to do against their wills. Like all the times she'd made Gray stop stripping, or the boys carry things, or Natsu and Happy...well...anyway, point was, she did it all the time. The blonde celestial wizard coughed delicately to cover the sound of disbelief she made and shook her head again.
"I'm really fine Erza. Go make Fairy Tail proud!" she said, grinning a little too broadly.
The redhead across from her took a second to examine her friend seriously, a hint of pity in her gaze. Lucy looked a little tired, maybe sad around the edges, but still mostly the sparkling picture of female health and beauty Erza expected of her. However, she couldn't let one of her friends lie to themselves, even if it kept them from being sad. "Lucy...there is no Fairy Tail to make proud, remember?"
Lucy's smile dropped slightly in wattage, but she kept it from slipping altogether. "Then you'll just have to make me proud instead!" she chirped before taking a sip of her now lukewarm tea.
"Well, that I can promise. I would never fail you!" Erza smiled back and set down her empty plate. Lucy blinked, trying to remember when she'd seen her eat the massive piece of cake that had been sitting on it. "Well, I'd better get going then. The last train leaves soon!"
"Oh, you're leaving today? Wow...well, have a good trip! I'll see you when you get back!" Lucy got up from the couch to walk her guest to the door (the one her guest had broken, you might remember), trying not to grit her teeth as she kept herself from flinging herself around Erza's legs and begging her to stay. Lucy knew she was being ridiculous. She couldn't expect to keep her friends from leaving to go on jobs. There were only so many little things the citizens of Magnolia needed done.
Even knowing that, a little twinge of sadness threaded its way into her heart seeing Erza walking away with her luggage cart. It felt like the beginning of the end somehow.
Thankfully, Levy showed up shortly after Erza left with a bright smile and a new book to gush about. They had another cup of tea, made dinner, and spent the evening discussing their plans for the library the next day, the little blunette staying far into the evening.
"Oooooo, I know! Let's create a magical index for the library! That will catalog everything and lead you to the book you're looking for! We have so many great books, but it's so hard to find everything! Even if everyone could manage to put them back where they belong…" Levy trailed off, giving Lucy a look.
"Which they can't!" Lucy agreed, grinning. "I'll bet Crux could help us set that up no problem! Now I'm really fired up to get started tomorrow!"
Lucy didn't even realize what she'd said until Levy's smile grew sad.
"Speaking of people that are fired up…" she started.
"Please don't Levy," Lucy interrupted with a whisper, dropping her head to hide behind her bangs. Levy struggled with doing what her friend wanted her to do, and what she felt she needed to do.
"But Lu…" Levy trailed off, feeling like a rotten person for prodding at Lucy when she was down. "Why don't you go find him? He doesn't even know the guild has disbanded does he? He's only been gone a couple of days! You could get a tracker spell. Or Alzack could find him for you! Or maybe Loke could sniff him out. Or-"
"Levy! Please, just STOP!" Lucy raised her voice and immediately felt sorry as Levy shrank back. "Listen, it's not about how far away he is, ok? It's…" Lucy trailed off, hesitating to put into words the feelings ripping through her abdomen and making the twisty knot in her stomach feel tighter. If she said it, then it was real. But Levy deserved to know why she'd snapped at her. "It's that he chose to leave without me," she finished all in a rush. "Especially after what happened with Tartaros…" Lucy stopped herself. She just couldn't talk about that yet. Maybe she'd never be able to talk about it. Just thinking about it felt like prodding an open wound. She could feel Loke try to force his gate and placed a hand on his key, keeping him from coming out.
She just wasn't...ready.
Silence met her confession. Levy wasn't one to speak without thinking, and this time was no exception. She thought over how she'd feel if Jet and Droy just up and left without her, even leaving a note. That would feel pretty awful. Unbidden, her mind skipped over to a certain iron dragon slayer instead. If he left...the thought took her breath away. The pain she'd imagined over the imaginary abandonment of her wizarding partners didn't even come close to matching the strain her heart felt as it struggled to beat normally just thinking about Gajeel taking off without telling her.
"I understand," she whispered, rubbing her chest subconsciously. "I'm sorry for bringing it up. I won't do that again."
"Thank you," Lucy responded softly, trying to think of something happy to change the subject to. "Hey...I think Erza may have left some slices of cake earlier that were 'too scrawny to count as cake' if you're interested…" Her voice was strained, but she kept going anyway. "I think there might be enough for a sweet snack or two!"
Levy immediately followed her blonde friend's lead, brandishing her fork. "I couldn't eat more than another bite anyway. Show me the cake!"
As it turned out, Erza hadn't left a bite behind, but the girls managed to hunt down some stray chocolates to satisfy their sweet tooths.
As they licked melted chocolate off their fingers and Levy debated walking home alone or staying the night, they heard something heavy fall in Lucy's bedroom. For one breathless moment, Lucy thought it was Natsu, climbing through her window again.
She rushed to the door, grasping her keys in one hand, just in case, only to find Gajeel and Panther Lily sprawled on the floor.
"Salamander always makes it sound so easy…" the iron dragon slayer grumbled as he rubbed the shoulder he'd landed on.
Lily brushed off his pants and licked his paw several times, grooming his face politely with it before responding, "I will admit, I expected it to be easier as well, since Happy manages to execute the maneuver on a regular basis…"
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" Lucy screamed, prompting Levy to slide across the wood floor in her socks as she rushed over, light pen ready to bring down solid script pain on Lucy's attacker (literally, she'd just learned how to solid script "PAIN" and was dying to try it out). Instead, she halted mid-motion in confusion. "Gajeel?"
"Hey Shrimp," Gajeel responded, offering no other explanation for his presence. Or why he had to come through Lucy's window.
Lucy tried to muster up the indignation to yell at him for breaking and entering, but honestly, she couldn't bring herself to care anymore. The whole guild had been breaking in since day one, it wasn't like they'd stop now that they weren't a guild. In a way, it felt like Gajeel was finally a part of their little group, instead of sitting in the corner watching it all happen.
"Lily thought you might need someone to walk ya home," Gajeel eventually offered grudgingly without looking at Levy.
Lucy smiled slyly at the dragon slayer's attempts to hide his concern for the solid script mage. She suspected it wouldn't be long until they were a real couple. For Levy's sake, she hoped it was soon. She could tell her friend was taking the guild's disbandment as hard as she was, and could use a distraction. Nothing worked like a dragon slayer to distract you from life's problems. When they weren't causing those problems, that is.
"That would be great! We were just talking about that!" she answered for Levy, not giving the blunette time to refuse. The solid script mage gave her a sidelong glance letting Lucy know she knew exactly what she was trying to do, but not objecting aloud. The blonde smiled smugly. Mira was gonna be psyched when she relayed the whole thing to her.
When the soon-to-be couple and their Exceed left (through the door this time thank Mavis, though Gajeel hadn't been able to resist a snide comment about the lock being broken), Lucy found herself once again alone with her apartment. And her thoughts.
She wondered how long it would be until she saw Erza again. There was really no telling.
Probably before she saw Natsu though.
Lucy sighed and tried to wrap her head around the idea of not seeing him or Happy for a whole year. It felt impossible.
For so many months she'd been trying to convince them to learn boundaries and let her have some alone time. But now, even her apartment felt like it was missing them, the silence spelling out how wrong the whole thing was.
Lucy shook her head and slapped her cheeks. Thinking like that would do no one any good. She had a lot to be thankful for, and dwelling on her problems wouldn't help.
With her pep talk helping to bring up her spirits, and a moment to turn on some music to fill the silence, Lucy went to take a bath.
Hot water made everything better.
Right?
And tomorrow would be better.
