Hello, people. Nightlingbolt here! Hope you all enjoyed the final chapter of ABCs! And as promised, I'm finally going to finish Lucky Star!
I'm reluctant to call this a failure, because not counting that A/N for the casting call, I had... 72 minus 16... 56 reviews in seven chapters, which is eight reviews per chapter. ABCs has 103 for 26 chapters currently, making Lucky Star more popular than ABCs. To me, that spells a disturbing double-standard in which the average Fairy Tail fan will ship Lucy with anyone, but will only ship Natsu with Lucy. Of course, I'm just making a generalization, but even so...
You know what, this isn't a failure at all. I just kept my focus on ABCs and ended up starting Scenes, so Lucky Star just suffered for it in the end. Still, I'm glad to be able to put this story to rest. And now... the not-so-epic conclusion.
I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, Hiro Mashima does.
Lucy woke up the next morning to find that Erza had gone. She also noticed that breathing was coming easier to her now than when she slept, most likely due to the absence of the Titania's bone-crushing embrace.
It was funny when Lucy thought about it. Erza held Natsu soft as a feather when they slept together, but with anyone else, she held on for dear life at the risk of the other person's dear life. She never thought Erza could be so... clingy.
But if Lucy understood what Jellal had told her last night, he had all but abandoned Erza when "Zeref's ghost" possessed him, causing her to have abandonment issues throughout her life. Considering this, Erza was lucky to have Natsu as a lover. He wouldn't leave unless you asked him to stay, and even if you did, he wouldn't be gone very long. That's just the kind of person he was.
Often, Lucy would wonder why she couldn't have someone like that. As mentioned, Natsu fit that description perfectly, but with her, he was more of the annoying best friend who has zero respect for her personal space.
But Jellal... Oh God, Jellal.
What had she said to Erza last night regarding the ex-Wizard Saint? Some bravado about making him feel like "one of us?" Still, the more she thought about it, the less far-fetched it seemed to be. She truly did want to be the guiding light, the white rabbit, for a new member, to be the one that made them feel truly welcome. She just didn't think it would happen so soon.
But it was happening. She had taken it upon herself to lend Jellal a guiding hand, and now he was counting on her not to betray him, the way he had betrayed everyone he ever loved, so many years ago. And damn it, she wouldn't let him down.
Her stomach growled. Lucy laughed out loud. She couldn't help anyone on an empty stomach, after all. She walked into the bathroom with the intent of showering, then heading to the guild for breakfast. Who knows? Maybe she would get to see Jellal before he left on that job of his.
The thought caused an involuntary blush.
As it turned out, Lucy and Jellal's date was the hot topic among the guild, much to the Celestial mage's annoyance. She could've sworn she told Mira and Levy to keep it a secret.
She spied Mira chatting with Juvia, Gajeel, and Pantherlily, no doubt about her and the ex-Wizard Saint. "Hey, Mira, what's the big idea?" she asked the barmaid in an annoyed tone. "I thought we were keeping this whole Jellal thing on the down-low!"
"I'm sorry, Lucy," said Mirajane apologeticly. "But in my defense, your exact words were 'Don't tell Erza about this.' But when Erza came in this morning, we got to talking, and the subject of Jellal came up. She said he would be okay thanks to you, so I assumed she knew about the two of you, and... and..." The barmaid started to sniffle, which caused Lucy to panic.
"Ah! No, Mira, don't cry!" said Lucy hurriedly. "I'm not all that shy about it! I just didn't want to upset Erza, that's all!"
"Che, because we all know how that goes down," said Gajeel to Lily.
"It could be worse," said Lily. "She could be Knightwalker."
"The fuck is Knightwalker?" asked Gajeel.
"Erza-san's counterpart from Edolas," said Juvia. "She was a General like Lily used to be." Gajeel still looked confused, causing the black Exceed to sigh.
"She shot me," he said bluntly.
Recognition lit up Gajeel's face. "Oh yeah!" he said loudly. "I promise I'll get revenge for that!"
"Well, once you figure out how to open an Anima, let me know and I'll take vengeance myself," said Lily dryly.
Meanwhile, Lucy's words seemed to have calmed Mirajane down, and the barmaid was looking as chipper as ever. The first chance he got, Gajeel ordered a beer, and she went to get some, leaving the group for a moment.
Gajeel pulled Lucy in close so he could whisper something. "You know she can do that on demand, right?" he said conspiratorily.
"Who, Mira?" asked Lucy. "She wouldn't do that."
"She does," insisted Gajeel. "I dunno if Salamander notices it when he's not in between Titania's boobs, but she doesn't give off that same scent that people who are really crying give off."
"Gajeel-kun should be trusted on this, Lucy-san," said Juvia. "When we were in Phantom Lord, Master Jose had him interrogate all the dark mages we captured."
"You guys took prisoners?" said Lucy nervously.
"Phantom Lord was a very unorthodox guild, and Jose was a very unorthodox master. That's part of the reason why he was named a Wizard Saint," said Juvia.
"Speaking of ex-Wizard Saints, did you see Jellal at all before he left?" asked Lucy.
"Jellal-san and Mest-san (because that's how the guild members knew Doranbolt) stopped by just long enough to eat and left for their job almost immediately after," said Juvia. "He did ask Juvia to pass on a message to you, Lucy-san."
"A message? For me?" asked Lucy. "What did he say?"
"'I'll be thinking of you the whole time, looking forward to when you light up my night sky once more,'" quoted Juvia. "Isn't that romantic?"
Lucy blushed furiously. "WAY TOO ROMANTIC!" she exclaimed. Still, part of her felt like a princess when she heard that, and it was starting to piss her off.
"He really said that!" chimed in Mirajane. "I'm a witness!"
"Juvia wished Gray-sama would say such lovely things to her!" swooned Juvia.
"Sounds to me like he loooooves you, Lucy," said Lily.
Gajeel looked at Lily weirdly. "The hell, Lily? You've been hanging around Salamander's cat too much," he said.
"Well, it is amusing to watch him try to woo Carla," said Lily.
"That reminds me!" said Mirajane brightly. "I have a fresh fish for Happy to give to Carla! I should give it to him right now!"
"Juvia wants to watch, too!" said Juvia. "Juvia will forever cheer for Happy-kun and Carla-chan's love!" The two girls went off to get that fish for Happy.
"Christ, these people are nuts," grumbled Gajeel. "Come on, Lily. Let's go grab a job." Lily couldn't think of a good reason not to agree and went with his Dragon Slayer.
Lucy sighed. Apparently, she and Jellal were out in the open now. As the day went on, various female members of the guild congratulated her on her new boyfriend. Cana told her it was about damn time, Evergreen expressed disdain that a girl like Lucy had scored a man like Jellal, and Bisca actually initiated a conversation with Alzack, inspired by her example.
But as she told Wendy and Levy the details of the night they shared together, she found herself missing Jellal even more than she already had. With each retelling, she had come more and more to grips with the fact that she liked Jellal. She wasn't ready to call it love, but there was no denying what they had was special.
Eventually, however, the wear and tear of the guild got to Lucy, and she was ready to go home, take a bath, and go to bed. She had filled up the tub and was just about to remove her bathrobe when a familiar blue-haired man appeared in front of her.
"Jellal!" she exclaimed. She had not expected her boyfriend – he was her boyfriend, wasn't he? If not, it sounded right – to send out a Thought Projection, especially not in her bathroom!
But wait... wouldn't this mean Jellal had almost seen her naked? Lucy tried to drudge up indignant feelings at that thought, but she found she could not.
"Damn you, Jellal," Lucy growled lightly. "What kind of spell did you put on me?"
Jellal – or rather his Thought Projection – clasped her on the shoulder. "I've been wanting to ask you that very same question," he whispered. "I've been thinking about you all day."
"You too," admitted Lucy.
"Doranbolt and I just arrived in the village an hour ago," said Jellal. "We've gotten the information we need and are ready to start the mission first thing in the morning. Speaking of mornings, I didn't get to see you this morning."
"Oh," said Lucy. "Erza didn't wake me up. We kind of had a girls night."
Jellal gave Lucy a look. "So Erza's okay with this, then? With... us?" he asked.
Lucy shrugged. "Seems that way," she said. "I mean, I'm alive, aren't I?"
Jellal laughed. "I guess that's true," he said. Lucy laughed in return.
"Look, I was gonna take a bath, and I'd like to take it before Natsu barges in and ruins my night."
"I wouldn't worry," said Jellal. "Knowing Natsu, he probably has a replacement knight."
"How do you replace a night?" asked Lucy. Jellal's only reply was a clever smirk, and Lucy frowned in realization.
"Night, knight... damn homophones..." She fixed a glare onto Jellal. "Seriously, disappear. If Erza's gonna be with him, my night is doubly ruined."
"Fine, fine," said Jellal. "Doranbolt only gave me five minutes' worth of magic anyway."
"Wait!" said Lucy. "Can your Thought Projection... feel?"
"Well, considering I masqueraded as a Council Member for about eight years without any suspicion, my projections are as good as a real person's," said Jellal. "Why?"
Lucy's only reply was to grab Jellal's face and meet his lips with hers. They were kind of dry, considering this Jellal was a construct of magic, but that was all the Celestial mage really needed.
"Good luck on your mission tomorrow," said Lucy shyly.
Jellal only smiled and disappeared. With his Lucky Star shining for him, he felt something he hadn't felt for a long time.
He felt invincible.
As we say in Boston, well, here you go.
I do want to reiterate that I would like to publish a sequel to this story one day, because I had ideas for it that I really wanted to use here, but I kept neglecting this story, and now adding more than a final chapter would just make it seem like I'm just forcing out ideas. That's probably one of the reasons why Scenes is going on hiatus. That shit got way out of control. I only had five pairings in mind, then I started writing the Crime Sorciere scene from Meredy's POV, and I got the idea to pair her with Sting, but Sting turned out to be a complete jackass, so I decided I want Rogue, and now I have no idea where to go from there.
Oh well, at least with this done, it's one less thing to worry about. So look for the last Scenes chapter before I officially put it on hiatus later today. Until then, peace and love from Nightlingbolt.