Hello you!


Lucy walked the familiar roads to the pub she called 'Fairy Tail', but not before she just breathed in the air and took in the magnificient day it was. The sun, up high in the infinite sky, was shining bright, spreading warm heat throughout the land. The light was so strong it developped everything and turned that into this brilliant display of colours, the green of the trees and the grass, the blue of the ocean and the sky itself, the brown-ish shade of the walls of the buildings around her, it all combined in this marvellous day. And Lucy might have actually enjoyed it, if it weren't for the lack of people she could enjoy it with.

Almost everyone was gone, Levy and Gajeel, Erza, Cana and Wendy, Gray and Juvia, and, the last ones, Mirajane and her family with Laxus and his team. Sure, there were more people present to brighten her day, but none of them, except Natsu and Lucy, actually talked to her, other than simple small talk. It would be strange if she closed herself to the tiny group of people, but she could never create strong bonds with them either. For all except Natsu, right now he was the only person at that guild who she still could call an actual friend, who she still shared that strong bond, maybe even stronger than most. Natsu was there for her, and he was the only one.

Before she went to the pub, she decided she would pick up some snacks at the local bakeries. She entered one of her favourites, she bought one piece of cake and ate it at the said place. She spent about an hour there, contemplating the sights of nature before her. It was truly a beatiful day, to the point she considered not going to the guild at all. Why would you close yourself in a small room with people you barely even talk to, when you could just spend the day outside, when you could just rest in the park next to the comforting shadow of the big tree? She couldn't think of any reason why, except for maybe her best friend, Natsu.

Again, that man entered her thoughts, well, that was wrong, maybe he never left them in the first place. These kind of crazy thoughts made her think about what kind of relationship she truly had with him, it made her question how she truly felt about him. She thought her female friends were only teasing her with the proposition, but, as time passed and passed, the doubt grew on her head. Was it possible that she was actually in love with him? Or is she confusing the feeling with a simple one of close friendship? She didn't know, she couldn't know. It was impressive, almost to the point of being extraodinary, how a simple doubt can make such a big explosion of questions to pop up inside of her head. It was by then she decided to leave the bakery.

She then passed by a Magic Items Shop, and she considered going in and see how they were with celestial keys. With the current shortage of guildmates, she thought about growing her celestial spirits collection. The thought of them made her smile, she had more friends than the ones of her guild, the Celestial Spirits were also astounding companions she loved to have around. They all had so many different personalities, each of them comical in their own peculiar way. But the thought brought her down as well, when she thought of the one she lost. Aquarius was brilliant, her water magic was strong and her personality and her antics could always bring a smile to her face, even though there were many disagreements the two had. She missed her, to try to put it in a way she herself could understand, that was the only setence that fit. But it was also so much more than that. She herself couldn't know how to express it. She ended up passing by the said store.

Lucy decided to just walk through the streets of the town. She would use up this day before she would stand before the emptiness her beloved guild had become. She realized she wasn't being fair with the other people of the Guild, they all must feel this way, if not worse. But that didn't mean she wasn't allowed to feel sad like she did. Just because others might have bigger problems, it didn't diminish hers. She just couldn't help it if, when faced with the lack of her friends and teammates, she saw the the others like simple strangers.

And so she walked. She walked and walked and walked, never thinking it was enough to make her go to the Guild. Everyone was gone in year long missions. But then, it hit her. What took her friends were missions that were delivered in the day they would be gone. Who could say that the friends that have gone were the only ones? Who could possibly determine who would be next in line for this? Just what was stopping another one from coming and take away her last true friend? Those thoughts quickly spread fear in her being, as she ran to the Guild where she hoped Natsu was.

But no such luck. When she finally arrived, her friend wasn't there. By now, the only hope was that he was never here to begin with and he was still lazing around in his house. The more she thought about it, the more hope grew. "Lucy!" She heard her name being called out from the counter, where she saw her Master standing there. As she walked to him, she tried to think about what he could possibly want that didn't have anything to do with Natsu. "I'll be straightforward with you, Lucy. Natsu has left, he gave me this letter so that I can pass it on to you." He handed her a white envelope.

Lucy quickly tore it open, and saw the contents of the letter. It was a poorly-written, with terrible hand-writing and a big face with an even bigger grin drawn on it, piece of paper. But it still managed to destroy Lucy's heart to little pieces, and then burn the little pieces to form energy from the heat to make the waterworks that were almost falling off of Lucy's eyes. "I'm going away for the year... with Gildars" She repeated, still not quite believing it. She decided to leave the Guild, there was nothing to be done there now that her friend was gone. And, so she ran to her appartment. She tried to scream that she couldn't handle to become completely alone, but she found no strength to do so. Only sobs and unintelligible words that collected attention from everyone around her came out of her mouth.


A little while ago...

Natsu and his exceed Happy were happily walking down the road to go to their beloved Guild. In Natsu's opinion, it hasn't been as fun as it once was, though. Everyone he used to fight with were going to all these sorts of missions, and Natsu was getting low on people he could fight with. But there still was someone, a small ray of hope that he still could pursue. A fight with Gildarts. The man was the strongest mage of the strongest guild in the whole continent, he was bound to be a hard to defeat opponent.

By the time he was arriving to the desired place, he smelled something strange and familiar in the air. It was definitely Gildarts' scent, but it was mixed with another one. It was a woman's perfume, that was for sure, but he didn't know who it could possibly be that had that scent. But it was Gildarts, so he went and followed the scent to a dark alley. "Natsu, why are we here?" Happy questioned, confident that his partner had a good reason to be here.

"I smell Gildarts" Natsu simply responded, but Happy understood and just followed him. Turns out they wouldn't go much further, as they soon saw the man they were looking for, and he alone smelled like a woman and a man. "Hey Gildarts, what's up with your weird smell?"

"I was with a woman earlier." Gildarts said without hesitation, but Natsu frowned, he knew the smell of people who had been hanging out with others, and the scent wasn't that strong. "To be more specific, I slept with a woman." Now that made sense, he knew what was like the smell when friends slept together, he had done it was well with Lucy, so Natsu just smiled his goofy smile, but then went to battle position. Now that Gildarts was here, he would fight him right away. "Oh, speaking of fighting, tell me Natsu, what do you feel about going with me to train for a year? We'll be training, fighting and just hanging out when we want to rest. And Happy can come too."

Natsu's eyes started to sparkle like he was a kid who had just been offered the rarest piece of candy. And to him, that's what happened. He then grinned again, wider this time, and said excitedly "Aye, sir!"

Contented with that answer, Gildarts said, "Great, then go pack your bags and take all your money, this won't be cheap after all. Oh and if you want, it'd be nice if you left a letter for that friend of yours, Lucy. She usually hangs out with you, doesn't she?" Natsu nodded at Gildarts, and ran to his house in the forest. As excited as he could be. When he left, Gildarts looked at the alley he had appeared from. "You can get out now, Elena."

A blonde woman, about 1,62 meters in height, came from the dark alley. She was slim and could not be older than forty. "Now, now, the lengths you go so you don't have to fight. I get that he's a kid and all, but you should fight him anyway. He won't shut up if you don't, you know?" Her voice was smooth, but also deep for a woman.

"Yeah, I know, but if I had to make that thing, sooner or later, then might as well do it now. And, besides, how could I fight anyone when my mind is only foccused on you?" He said, as he went to grab her waist and pull it against his own.

"Well, good as this was being, that guy was kind of a turn off. You won't get anymore from me in a very long time, all thanks to that kid. Be sure to punish him for that." She released herself from his grasp and took a step back.

"And what if I don't? What will you do to me?" Gildarts cheaply said.

"Don't try to be hot, you'll just turn out as creepy."

"You're a mood killer."

"Your friend's a mood killer."

"Oh, by the way whatever happened with Smoker, did he get to take anybody with him?"

"No, he's right now with Mikasa. But don't get any ideas, you won't come with me."

"Ohhh, why not? What could the problem possibly be?"

"Lyserg doesn't trust us enough to be together and still give a crap about those two. Besides, every couple is supposed to be separated, Smoker just dodged the bullet."

"Huuh, well, now I have to go pack my bags, see ya later." He said, turning around and waving goodbye, leaving the woman to stare at him, but she soon enough turned and went to get the other woman.


Back to Lucy...

Lucy was still running. Still crying over the loss of her friend, but not nearly as much as in the beginning. She got tired before she could reach her appartment, so she stopped and sat on a bench, as she realised she still held that damn letter. She read it again, specially that doodle of a goofy grin. Again, she thought she might be overreacting because she wasn't alone, but she couldn't help it. Her feelings were beyond her understanding or control which made it harder to look on the brighter side of things.

She saw a woman approaching her but paid no mind to her. She heard her sit down next to her, but still only foccused on her own thoughts. She heard something come out of her mouth, but she passed it off as someone doing regular small chat. The kind of talk that's only made because it'd be awkward and uncomfortable if it wasn't. She knew that kind of talk very well as she herself has done it many times. Her guildmates, lovely as they might be, were nothing more than another stranger in the bench she was sitting on. "Are you listening to me, you twat?!" She heard the lady again, but still couldn't pay attention. That is, until she repeated to herself what she said, and she suddenly jerked her hear towards the blond woman. "Jesus, here I was, trying to make you feel better and you outright ignore me. Did they not taught you manners at that Heartfilia Mansion you had?!"

"Hey, you can't talk about that! That was an awful part of my childhood, my mom died and dad pretty much abandoned me!" Lucy screamed at the lady, it was really taboo to mention that part of her life around her.

"Oh, boo-hoo. I'm sure it was pretty tough for you, enlighten me; how many servants did your family had?"

"That's not fair, I don't know you from anywhere and you just started to attack me."

"I was trying to make a real conversation, but you weren't playing attention so blame me for trying something different, little cunt. But anyways, I was telling you that just because you're friend left, it doesn't mean that you're alone. No, scratch that, you can feel alone all you want, as well as sad and depressed for a while. But if you treat this as if it's the end of the world, then you just have no pride whatsoever, and that's not good, is it?"

"You can't control your emotions, can you? If, by the way I'm feeling, I'm treating my friend's departure as the end of the world, how can I treat it anything else but it?"

"Lucy, are you fucking retarded? For heaven's sake, I'm not telling you to force a smile, just to look for a perspective where you see that everything's going to be fine."

"You don't have to be rude. I get the fact that that's what I should do, but the sadness inside of me consumes every other thought. How can I-" Lucy was interrupted by a quick slap to the face.

"Oh, Lucy, what kind of woman are you? Oh, that's right, you aren't a woman at all, you're a sad child who was clinging on Natsu and the others for a support for happiness. Now that they're gone, no one is supporting you and you're falling to the abyss of hopelessness and heartbreak. But that's just how a child should behave, you're an adult, and you should be able to support yourself from that pit." Lucy was now just covering the red mark of that woman's hand on her face. "When you realize that you have many more things that can hold you up, come to me, I'll be around."

She left the bench, leaving a hurt Lucy behind. Now she was hurt both mentally and phisically, but paid no mind to either. She was reflecting on the words of the unnamed woman. She was on the edge of having an existencial crisis had that woman not shown up. Now all she could think of were that last sentence, as it played again and again in her mind for about an hour, until she started to think about what to do, "She wants me to find a good angle where I can still find relief and happiness. But in what point of view could this be good. Unless... that's not what she meant. Maybe she meant I can be sad, as long, as I realise that everything's going to work out. But I won't know that for sure until they all return... WAIT! That's it, she wants me to realize that it's not the worst thing ever to have hope in a happy ending where we'll be together again, no matter how rocky things might be!" She smiled at the thought and went immediately to the way the woman had gone, but she soon realised it'd be hopeless. She had been there for too much time fo her to be around. So, she just went home.

And who did she find? None other than the blonde unnamed woman. "What are you doing here? I don't remember invinting you here."

"You're awfully calm about how I just broke into your house. Anyways, I just thought you wouldn't come back here until you had your answers figured out."

"Yes, and I already did. I just ha-"

"Lucy, I don't care. I'll trust that you found the right answer for you. Now, for introductions, seeing as you had the delicacy of asking my name."

"Sorry, but you didn't ask mine ei-"

"Lucy, shut up, my name is Elena. I'm here to give you your one year mission."

"What? I'll have one to myself?!"

"I didn't give you permission to un-shut up, Lucy. But anyways, pack your bags, we're going to spend the year away for a hot climate weather, probably close to a beach where I'll relax while you do all the work. I already dropped by your Guild and gave them the job file for they to take record."

"Oh, thanks, I guess." Lucy said, as she went to pack her bags.


"And so, another brat went on her journey to change, they won't be the same when they come back, that's for sure. They'll become wiser and stronger. But, why give them a reason to come back at all? Why tie so many people up to such a messed up place? I see now,that there is really no point." An old man, in a closed room thought, as he went to his drawer to get a sheet of paper. He filled all the blank spaces and, like that, this guild, the majestic, powerful Fairy Tail who raised hundreds of different strong mages was now gone for good. Well, the official disbandment of a guild would still take about a month, but still, it would break up.


The end of intro arc. Next will be a small chapter concerning Gajeel and Levy, but it might take a while to put up, so... well, just don't expect one that soon. Unless, it somehow proves to be easier to write, I don't know, but I don't care really either anyways.