I´ll wait for you to return Natsu. No matter how long I´ll have to wait. I´ve already rented this apartment for a month, after all.

The following week Lucy visited the guild every day from the morning to the night. She got to know all of her old friends again, and even though they were a bit different, they were still the same people she once had known and considered her family.

She hadn´t had so much fun in all her 18 years, not in this life at least. The days she now spent in the guild was a bit like how it had been before, but not as fun. Natsu wasn´t there after all, and no one had made her laugh as much as he had. She missed him so much.

She sighed to herself and moved the ice-cubes in her glass around with her straw.

"Something wrong, Lu-chan?" the petite blue haired woman sat down next to Lucy.

"Not really", she answered and smiled at her friend. "I´m just wishing Natsu could hurry back."

Levy nodded. "Are you going back when you´ve met him?"

Lucy was surprised by the question.

Will I be going back?

"It depends", Lucy answered after a moment of silence.

"Depends on what? I´m sorry if I´m snoopy, I just…"

Lucy laughed. "It´s fine, don´t worry about it. I know that you just worry about me, Levy-chan." Lucy sighed quietly. "It depends on what his reaction to me being here will be."

"What do you mean?" Levy frowned.

Lucy smiled slightly. "You´ll have to wait, Levy-chan. I don´t know anything for sure my self yet."

Levy nodded understandingly and then changed the subject, talking about a really good book she read recently. Lucy only listened on one ear, thinking about how Fairy Tail had looked in her former life compared to now.
Being back in Fairy Tail was pleasant indeed. She loved to spend time with all her friends again, but she missed her parents and the servants at home. She wondered how her mother was doing now.
Thinking back to her other life, she thought about how she came to join Fairy Tail. Her mother had died and her father had been neglecting her, not caring for her at all.

Mama…

She couldn´t imagine a world without Layla, and not without Jude either. But she knew she had lived in it once.
She couldn´t imagine a world without Loke either, he had been a dear friend to her after all. But she knew that she could be living in a world like that at the moment. She wished she could ask someone about him, if he´d been in Fairy Tail, but she knew she had to wait for Natsu to return.

I miss Plue. He had been able to cheer me up by now.

It was lonely, as it was now, without her spirits hanging by her hip and without having Plue out so she had someone to talk to. She let out a sigh.

It´s strange how things can change…

That was the last thought she had before falling asleep.

…

Waking up the next morning, Lucy opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. Sitting up in the bed that wasn´t hers, she looked around in the room that she´d never seen before.

That´s right. I´m in Magnolia, I´m not home.

Lucy shook her head. Was she starting to forget about Natsu now?

"Hurry back Natsu", she whispered to herself as she rose.

She went over to the desk in the room and brought forward a piece of paper that she put on the desk. Sitting down in the chair, she brought forward a pencil and wrote where she was, why she was there and who Natsu was.

I better read this every night so I won´t forget.

Leaving the paper and the pen on the desk, she rose to get dressed and headed to the guild. On the way she thought about Natsu as much as she could.

Natsu never went through my door, always the window. We used to walk on these streets together. He almost fell down into the canal once, but Happy and I saved him. He never opened the guild doors like a regular person, always kicking them in and screaming: "we´re back!"

That habit of him was securing, because she knew that if he did like that then she couldn´t miss when he came. But then she realized that since things had changed, and he had matured some… maybe he didn´t do that anymore?

"Good morning Lucy", Mira smiled at her from behind the bar.

"Morning Mira", Lucy smiled back. "Natsu´s not back yet, is he?"

Mira shook her head. "No, not yet."

Lucy giggled. "Well, I can´t possible imagine him coming early like this. It has to be passed lunch before he arrives."

Mira giggled as well. "Couldn´t have said it better myself."

Lucy smiled and then she sat silent for a moment.

"What´s wrong Lucy?"

"Well…"

"Tell me when you´re eating something, will you?" Mira smiled and then disappeared to fetch Lucy something to eat.

"Morning Lucy", Lisanna sat down next to her by the bar.

"Lisanna, good morning", Lucy smiled at the white-haired girl.

Lisanna smiled back. "What´s up?"

"Nothing much, just waiting for Natsu to get back", Lucy made a face when she said that which got Lisanna to laugh.

"I know what you mean. He´s always gone way to long, that moron", she giggled. "But that´s what makes me forgive his return."

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked curious.

"Well", Lisanna changed her position a bit, crossing her legs and leaning over the table, "he always makes such a big scene, almost kicking the door of its hinges and starting a fight."

Lucy giggled. "I can imagine that happening."

Lisanna laughed at her words. "You sure can, right?"

Lucy laughed too and when the two of them quieted down, there was a moment of silent before Lisanna spoke.

"How well do you know Natsu, Lucy?"

"Pretty well I guess… but I think you know him better. You have known him for a long time after all."

"Yeah, but sometimes I just get this feeling that he´s really far away", Lisanna said and sighed. "He´s my best friend, and the one who knows him best of us in the guild is probably me… but I think there´s a side to him that I don´t know. That side that disappears, I suppose. I was thinking… maybe you´ve seen it?"

Lucy shrugged. "I don´t know… I haven´t seen him in a long time…"

Lisanna nodded and once again the silent filled the air before Lisanna broke it. "Did you know he wrote? I don´t know what he wrote, but I saw him sitting around the guild a couple of weeks ago, writing something on a piece of paper. But he was really making sure that no one saw what he wrote. Not even me. He didn´t even tell me what he wrote."

Lucy was silently watching Lisanna´s upset face. She gathered her courage and asked her the question that was bouncing around in her head.

"Do you have… those kind of feelings for him, for Natsu?"

Lisanna looked up at Lucy with widened eyes. And then she started to laugh. "What are you thinking? Of course not crazy! He´s like a brother to me!"

"Are you sure?" Lucy asked, trying to hide her relief.

"Of course!" she was interrupted by some more laughter. "How could I feel like that for him? He´s such a baby compared too…"

She suddenly interrupted herself, making Lucy give her a suspicious look.

"Wait a minute… do you have someone else?"

"What?!" Lisanna started to laugh. "Are you crazy for real Lucy? Of course not."

Something´s off with that laugh, she´s definitely hiding something!

"You have, haven´t you? Tell me! Who is it!"

"It´s no one!"

"Lis!"

"Lucy!" she mimicked using the same tone of voice.

"Seriously! Tell me!"

"Sch, keep it down!" Lisanna said. "There isn´t anyone yet."

"But there is someone?"

"I´ll tell you if you´re not leaving us", Lisanna answered and then rose up strutting away in a mocking way. She looked back at Lucy over the shoulder and blinked before she turned forward and ran away.

"Lis!" Lucy muttered and were just about to follow when Mira came back with Lucy´s breakfast.

"You look much better already", Mira smiled and put down the plate in front of Lucy.

"Thanks Mira", Lucy smiled at the woman who brought her the food.

Natsu would have liked this, it´s rather spicy. But of course, he would want even more spice, or rather having pure fire.

Lucy smiled at herself thinking about him. He sure was an idiot.

…

"Someone´s lovesick."

"You think so too, Mira-nee?"

"She couldn´t be more obvious about it!" Mira said as she giggled and Lisanna nodded in agreement.

The two Strauss siblings where standing by the other side of the bar, watching the blonde smile to herself.

"Natsu better hurry back, or he´ll miss the best thing that´s ever happened to him", Lisanna said as she sighed and Mirajane nodded in agreement.

I´m so sorry it took me so long to update! I really am! But to make it up to you I will post the following chapter really soon, like tomorrow maybe? I had to write both chapters to be able to post this chapter you see.

But that´s enough from me, let me know what you think of this chapter, will ya? Is it too slow and boring? This is future preferences for me after all ^-^

Oh, and sorry but I didn´t proof read this. I´m lying in bed half asleep - don´t judge me for not having energy to do it :P