Lucy got up and headed to the bathroom intent on taking a long hot shower. She opened the door to find the tub already filled with a very pissed blue mermaid soaking in the steaming water.

"So you went and got yourself a man, brat, and you run away. I should have expected something as childish from you," Aquarius set down her magazine to glare at the now shaking blonde mage.


After That Day Chapter 7—With Absolution

Lucy started to shake as she looked at the blue mermaid glaring at her. The fact that Aquarius had shown up was not a good sign. Lucy knew she was in for the lecture of her life when the blue mermaid suddenly scoffed and patted the stool beside the bathtub.

"I'm not going to hurt you. Come explain to me why you're being stupid," Aquarius said practically rolling her eyes. Aquarius had always had a fondness for the girl, one that she most certainly did not show, and could see that something was causing her pain.

Lucy hesitantly stepped to the stool and sat down. "I'm sure you noticed I went missing for a few months."

Aquarius snorted, "How could I not notice, you weren't interrupting all of my dates. I was starting to get suspicious."

Lucy cracked a smile. "Well, I was with Natsu heading out for a job when a bomb went off in the road. All I really remember is flying away from him and hitting a tree really hard." The blonde's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "I don't really remember how I wound up at Louisa's house, but I can vaguely remember feeling someone carrying me. Anyway, I lost all of my memories, including that I was pregnant. I loved with Louisa for a few months and then one day she showed me the keys that she found me with and Loke appeared. I guess the box she had them in was blocking his magic. I kind of passed out from the rush of memories and hit the floor pretty hard. When I woke up I was in labor and gave birth to my two babies." Lucy grimaced at the memory of the pain she had endured for those few hours while giving birth. "I think I might have scarred Loke."

Aquarius let out a short laugh. "You should have seen his face when he finally came back to the spirit realm. He was all stuttering and wouldn't slow down to tell us what happened until I nearly drowned him."

Lucy paled at the image, knowing the feeling all too well. "Well by the next day, I wanted to get back into town so I could let everybody know I was okay. We set out, running into a few bandits along the way, and made it into town." Lucy felt her voice drop into a broken whisper. "When we finally made it into Magnolia I saw them… Natsu and Lisanna holding each other…" Lucy trailed off as tears started to well in her eyes. "I just ran. I didn't want to stay and hear him say that he didn't wait for me. I didn't want to hold him back from being happy. I didn't want my babies to grow up without a dad like I did." At this point Lucy was a sobbing mess.

Aquarius was watching Lucy with stormy eyes. She hated the thought of Lucy's children growing up like Lucy had. Aquarius knew all too well how alone the child had been for most of her life, heck she called on her every time she was in the bath! She let out a short sigh. "I know what you mean. Jude was not the greatest father to have, but you made the best of it. You became an amazing mage and stepped out from the Heartfilia name." Lucy gasped at the mermaid, hearing a compliment. "But here's what you don't want to hear. You're being selfish and reckless. You can't run away like this. You need to stand up and stop hiding from the past. Natsu isn't Jude. Plus you know that your guild will go searching for you, now that they know you're alive and well. They're a bunch of persistent and reckless idiots as well."

Lucy let out a laugh of her own. She knew Aquarius was right, which brought on a whole new wave of guilt. "You're right," she said quietly. "I need to go back and face him. Thank you Aquarius, you've always been able to beat some sense into me."

Aquarius nodded at the girl, "I'm glad you've decided to stop being stupid. Now if you don't mind, I've got a hot date waiting for me back home." With another nod to Lucy she vanished in a puff of smoke.

Lucy heard the door open and ran out of the bathroom, "Virgo! Loke! I'm sorry but we need to go back…" Lucy cut off as she rounded the corner and went towards the door. There stood Wendy, Erza, Gray, Happy, Charle, Levy, Gajeel, Lily, and in the very front…Natsu.

Lucy felt her heart stop in her chest as she stared at Natsu. She was quickly thrown out of her reverie when a young dragon slayer hurled herself at Lucy crying.

"LUCY!" Wendy sobbed as she hugged her tightly. Lucy returned the hug tightly and smoothed the young girl's hair.

"I'm so sorry for scaring you like that," she whispered. Hearing her voice must have set off a chain reaction for the rest of her guild mates, as they all flooded her and rushed her in a giant group hug.

Lucy let out a happy sigh as she snuggled into the arms of her guild mates. After a minute or so of them rambling and hugging her, she looked up to see Natsu hadn't joined them, and was just standing at the door as he was before.

Gray cleared his throat uncomfortably, "We should give them a minute." Everyone else nodded and stepped out of the room. Wendy squeezed Lucy one last time before giving her a small smile and following the others out into the hallway, closing the door behind her. Little did Natsu and Lucy know, everyone was clamoring to get an ear to the door to hear the conversation.

Lucy stared at the ground uncertainly. She heard footsteps approach her and felt a gentle hand under her chin. The hand titled her face upwards until they met a pair of dark eyes.

"Look at me, please…" Natsu said. She could tell that he hadn't slept in a while, and stubble was growing on his chin.

"Natsu…" Lucy trailed off uncertain of what to say.


A/N:I was going to leave it there, but I'm not feeling mean today. :)


Natsu let out a pained breath, "It wasn't what you thought it was. I know what you think you saw, Lucy, but it wasn't. Lisanna almost fell into the road. She was about to get hit by a cart and I pulled her out of the way just in time."

Lucy gasped softly, concern for the other girl settling in her eyes. "Is she okay?"

Natsu smiles softly, "You're such a weirdo, Luce, she's fine." Lucy tried to pull away, but Natsu pulled her closer. "I however, am not. I haven't rested since the day I lost you. I searched almost every corner of Fiore for you. Just when you were close enough for me to reach you ran away…" Natsu's voice broke slightly.

Lucy, who had been struggling, stopped and suddenly wrapped her arms around him tightly. "I'm so sorry Natsu… I'm so sorry! I thought you moved on… I didn't want to-I couldn't…" Lucy started to cry.

"Shhhh… It's okay now. I forgive you, can you forgive me?" Natsu asked, kissing her forehead and smiling at her.

Luce nodded and kissed him gently. All of the guild members out in the hall let out a sigh of relief and opened the door.

Luce looked up from Natsu's arms and smiled at all of them. They all smiled in return and went to find places to sit down.

"We should get back to the guild as quickly as we can, everybody else is still worried, and they'd love to see you," Gray said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"First thing's first," Erza declared. "Where's the baby?" Natsu sucked in a breath, as if someone had punched him, and a few of the other guild members let out giggles.

Lucy looked at all of them in confusion. "All of you know except for Natsu?" They all nodded sheepishly.

"We really meant to tell him, but he wouldn't stop to listen. Between the train ride to get here, and running all the way through town following your scent, we didn't have the chance to," Gray admitted.

Just in that moment Loke threw open the door and strode in carrying Igneel in his arms. "Lucy! We brought food… Uh, hey guys?" He looked rather confused. Lucy squirmed out of Natsu's arms and went to Loke. She gently took her son out of Loke's arms and smiled at him.

"Natsu… This is our son, Igneel," Lucy whispered as she walked over to him. Natsu looked positively dumbstruck at this point. Lucy smiles and settled her baby boy into his father's arms and stepped back.

Virgo stepped into the room holding Nashi, clearly unfazed by the amount of people in the room. "Princess, I have brought the little princess as well," she stated in her usual monotone voice. "Would you like to punish me?"

"Thank you, Virgo… But no, not today, or ever for that matter." Lucy took her daughter from Virgo. "You two can head back to the Celestial realm now, thank you so much for your help." She smiled warmly at her spirits. Virgo nodded and vanished, Loke followed after giving Lucy a kiss on the cheek. Lucy turned to look at the shocked faces of her guild members and a very shocked Natsu. "This is our daughter… Nashi."

Natsu stared down at the baby boy in his arms and then looked at the baby girl in Lucy's arms. His head whipped back and forth between the two.

Erza tutted softly and took the baby from Lucy. "Go fix your husband. I think you may have broken him."

Lucy let out a soft laugh as she walked over to Natsu who sat on the bed. She placed both of her hands on either side of his face and kissed him firmly. His body relaxed slightly and leaned into the kiss. They both broke apart as Igneel let out a sharp cry.

Natsu rocked him gently and whispered to himself, "I'm a dad." Lucy smiled and nodded happy tears forming in her eyes. Erza handed Nashi back to her, and Natsu peered into his daughter's face. "She's got my hair!" Was the first statement he came up with. Everybody in the room laughed and smiled. Soon they were all cooing over the two precious Dragneel twins.

"Let's go home Luce," Natsu said to his wife as he pulled her close. All of the guild members nodded and they set off. To home, to Fairy tail.


A/N: Well look at this! Finally the happy reunion. I tried to fiddle with this the best I could, and I hope you guys liked it! I think this may be the end for After That Day. It's been a real whirlwind getting my first story out there to you guys, and I want to say thank you to all of my reviewers, favoriters (I know that's not a real word), and followers. I'm toying with the idea of a sequel or an epilogue chapter. If you'd like to read a little more, let me know! Anything for you guys! Thank you again for reading!