DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fairy Tail; not its characters, the settings or anything—Hiro Mashima-sensei does. The only thing I do own is the plot of this story. Either ways, please respect our works.

HONEST MISTAKE: In the previous chapter, I wrote that Lucy had blue eyes: AN HONEST MISTAKE. I forgot that her eyes were brown. SORRY!

ABOUT SCHOOL: We're learning about Defense Mechanisms… -_- Now I'm beginning to wonder if this chapter is long enough...


-CHAPTER TWENTY NINE: MOVING ON-
"She… forgives you," Gray suddenly said."

"Stop it, Gray!" she ordered.

"No," Gray replied and he continued to push her toward a wooden door.

"I said, 'Stop it'!"

"C'mon, sissy!" he teased.

Lucy pushed her shades up the bridge of her nose. She had worn them the minute she stepped out of her room in order to hide her now slightly swollen eyes behind them. Unfortunately, Gray was on his way to her room with the intention of making her visit Lisanna and Natsu. Gray, being a strong guy, was able to effortlessly push her toward Lisanna's room.

Lucy didn't know why but somehow, she didn't want to see Lisanna and Natsu just yet. She was sure that she held no anger against either of them. It was just— very awkward.

"Gray, stop it right now!" she repeated when they were already a few steps to Lisanna's room.

"No, you stop it!" Gray argued back.

CLUNK.

Both their heads turned toward the door, now opened, with a Natsu staring wide-eyed at them.

"Hey, Gray… Luce…"

"Yo." Gray said raising a hand to him. Lucy simply smiled—or so she thought. Through Natsu's point of view, she looked utterly disgusted.

Tensed, Natsu uttered, "W-What are you doing here?"

"Is Lisanna alright?" Gray asked, took Lucy by the arm, made his way inside the room and dragged the Stellar-Spirit Mage in.

"She's, uh… resting." Natsu replied back, scratching the back of his neck.

As Gray and Lucy went near the bed, Lucy's heart beat faster. She held her breath as if they were going somewhere that smells.

There, on the bed, covered with white sheets, Lisanna sat, eating breakfast.

The baby was going to die!

The words rang in Lucy's ears and her heart pounded. Intense feelings, not of hatred but rather, self-pity, rose up to her chest as she and Lisanna looked eye-to-eye.

"Lucy…" Lisanna blurted out, almost choking on the cinnamon bread she was eating.

"Hey, 'Sanna," Gray smiled as he sat down, still holding Lucy's arm, which made her sit beside him on Lisanna's bed. "How're you feeling?"

"Fine," she replied. "I think he's fine, too."

Lisanna patted her belly affectionately at this statement.

"He?" Gray asked, eyebrow raised.

"Well, I'm not very sure," Lisanna said. "But I have a feeling that it's going to be a boy."

"If it's gonna be a boy and takes after Natsu then the world's going to fall apart…" Gray said half-seriously, looking at Natsu who was leaning on the wall beside Lisanna.

"Shut up, Gray," Natsu said emotionlessly.

It's so unlike Natsu to let Gray's insults pass, Lucy thought.

"What're you gonna name the baby?" Gray asked.

"If it's a boy, we decided on Makarov…" Lisanna said. Then, with imploring eyes, she looked at Lucy and said, "…and if it's a girl we'll name her Lucy…"

"Lisanna…" Lucy blushed at Lisanna's words.

"Hey, Natsu… Let's go buy something to eat…" Gray said immediately and dragged Natsu by the collar of his vest like a dog out of the room.

When the door closed behind them, Lisanna and Lucy were left in an awkward moment. After a brief silence, Lucy forced a chuckle and put her hand affectionately on Lisanna's leg.

"It's good to see that you're fine…" she said, taking off her shades.

"And I'm glad to see you here…" Lisanna said in all honesty with an embarrassed undertone. "Frankly, I thought you wouldn't want to see me again."

"What?" Lucy exclaimed. "Why?"

"Lucy, I know I owe you a huge debt. And I can't even start to imagine what kind of pain I've been putting you through."

"Lisanna, please…" Lucy interrupted. "It's not like that…"

"I probably don't even deserve to live, right?" Lisanna said, apparently not listening to Lucy's sentiments. "No matter how much you hide it, I know you must be hurt. So please, don't act as if you're not."

Lisanna looked down, unable to see Lucy eye-to-eye. With tears falling on her shirt, she quivered and continued, "I don't want to ruin your relationship with Natsu but I can't not have the baby."

At that moment, she didn't know who she pitied more: Lisanna or herself. She could see that Lisanna had no ill intentions, much like Natsu. Both of them were completely lost and stuck on the same shaky ground. How could she actually hate Lisanna?

"I'll be fine even if you don't want Natsu to take responsibility of this so please don't hate me," silver hair covered half Lisanna's face as she looked up at Lucy in tears. It broke Lucy's heart that Lisanna was going through such thoughts of fear, guilt and abandonment.

Lovingly, Lucy wrapped her arms around Lisanna and hugged her tightly. Her tears fell almost immediately.

"Lisanna…" she said softly as she cried. "I understand."

Lisanna let out a cry and hugged Lucy back.

"I'd be lying if I said that I'm not mad or hurt, though. Of course, it does," Lucy said honestly. "So I hope you understand me, too, if I act strangely with all the new things and changes around us.

"But that doesn't mean I won't be your friend anymore. I'd still be here for you and Natsu. It pains me to see you think that way. I thought about it and talked with Natsu," Lucy said and broke the hug to look at Lisanna properly. "We decided that it would be best for everyone if he stayed with you and your child."

"Lucy…" Lisanna said, shocked.

"I know it's what you'd do if this happened to me so…"

"Lucy!" Lisanna hugged Lucy again by the waist in such a way that her head was pressed on Lucy's stomach.

Crying, she uttered gibberish words of apology which Lucy couldn't all understand. She, too, was crying. The thought of having to let go of Natsu for the second time was almost as unbearable as the first. But since it was all for the common good, Lucy had more peace.

She didn't want the child to lose a parent. She knows how it feels like at a different perspective, though. Her mother had died and she completely understood that they couldn't see each other anymore. But with how would Natsu's child feel seeing him and not being able to call him 'Dad'. Lucy just couldn't see it. She didn't want to carry that burden for life.

And now as she let go of Natsu, she knew perfectly that she was going to have to get used to it permanently. Natsu wasn't gone, anyway. He had just changed his role in her life. And perhaps, the gods had a plan why things turned out that way.

She remembered the words her mother had written on her book, "…If all is not well, it's not yet the end."

"Don't cry anymore, Lisanna…" Lucy said affectionately, wiping tears of her own. "Or else you'll end up with swollen eyes like mine."

Lisanna laughed and broke away, wiping her tears as she did, and laughed. "I see your eyes have been worked up last night."

"Yeah…" Lucy laughed in reply. "I'm surprised they can still produce so many tears right now." She, too, dried her now more swollen eyes.

The two girls hugged once more at their now renewed and more mature friendship.

"But, really, Lisanna," Lucy suddenly said. "You're really naming the baby after me?"

And they laughed again.


Gray closed the door behind him as he dragged Natsu out of the room.

"O-oi…" said Natsu, matching up to Gray's pace. He pulled his hand from Gray's grip. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Those two need to talk, idiot," Gray said flatly. "Don't you know a thing about women?"

Gray leaned on the wall outside of Lisanna's room and calmly waited in silence with his eyes closed. Natsu, after staring at Gray for a long time, sat on the floor beside him.

It was a silent yet tense moment for the two comrade-rivals. It was like Lucy and Lisanna were fighting inside.

"Is Lucy alright with everything?" Natsu asked suddenly.

Gray opened his eyes slowly and breathed, "She broke up with her boyfriend because he had an intimate affair with her friend. How do you think she feels?"

"Yeah, I thought so," Natsu said,guilt in his voice. What Gray had said was brutally blunt yet somehow honest and full of sense.

"You talked to her last night, didn't you?" Natsu asked again.

Gray didn't move; didn't budge; he didn't even grunt or sigh. He just stayed silent and Natsu took it as Gray shyly saying 'Yes.'

"Did she say anything about how I could make it all better?"

"Look, we've known this girl for quite some time now. Do you really think she's that kind of woman?" Gray said monotonously.

"It's just so difficult because she's very unpredictable at times," the flame mage replied.

A short pause came again, and Gray broke it this time.

"She… forgives you," Gray suddenly said.

Natsu chuckled. "That's very like Lucy."

"But I don't."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"You should've thought things through, you bastard," Gray said with anger in his voice. "You slept with Lisanna when you were in a relationship with Lucy; now you're suffering the consequences of your stupidity."

Natsu sighed. "Che. You don't need to tell me that 'coz I see that every day. And if you're talking about suffering, don't worry; I have much of that right now."

"Serves you right," the raven-haired mage replied.

"Are you… still in love with Lucy?" Natsu said after a while.

"That depends," he coolly replied.

"Whaddya mean, 'That depends'?" Natsu said, eyebrows meeting. "Is that even possible?"

"Lucy obviously hasn't moved on. If I force myself on her, it'd give her more trouble."

"So you do still love her," Natsu concluded.

"That depends…" Gray repeated.

Natsu stood up from his initial position and faced Gray. Gray flinched a bit but remained calm as he stared as Natsu rose.

"I love Lucy, Gray," Natsu confessed. "But I don't deserve to."

"Your point is?" Gray asked, without even looking at him.

Obviously, all the anger that Lucy didn't feel for Natsu transferred to Gray. How could it not? Natsu was a two-timing bastard who broke Lucy's heart twice. He could've forgiven him once but twice was just way too much. He's had his chances and he wasted them. If he dared ask for a third chance with Lucy, he'd ice blast Natsu 'til kingdom come!

"I want you to love her the way I didn't."

At this statement, Gray's eyes widened and his head immediately snapped to Natsu's direction in disbelief. Natsu wasn't joking. The way he looked, he was serious. Dead serious.

"If there's anyone I know to whom I can trust will love Lucy a lot better, it's you," Natsu said. "I may not usually say smart stuff but I know this one will be a wise decision.

"I've thought about it all night and," Natsu breathed, "It seems Lucy and I were just not meant to be together."

Natsu held out a hand to Gray. He was officially ceding their rivalry on Lucy. "Whaddya say, Gray?"

Gray looked at Natsu's hand, then at Natsu. One moment, the two of them were in a tense situation, the next moment, Gray punched Natsu so hard that he shook his hand in pain afterward. Natsu lay on the floor in shock, caressing his cheek.

"What the—what was that for?" Natsu asked in anger, still on the floor and looking up to Gray. "I was freakin' serious!"

"That was from Lucy to you, idiot," Gray said and he offered his hand to Natsu. "And I accept your offer… You'd better not regret it."


Gray-sama! You're so COOL! 3

That's right! To all those who are broken-hearted out there, move on!

If you're meant to be together, then you will be together!

So stop crying or hurting and just MOVE ON! (This is easier said than done, I understand that.)