Hi there, Welcome to this story. I have most of the outline done for this story. It's been something thta bothered me a long time with Fairy Tail and i had to get it out. And a story appeared. I hope you like it, its been a while since i've written.

The typical pairings: Slow burn Nalu, Gruvia...ect.

WARNING: The following chapter has AN EXTRA dramatic Lucy in it. Please note this is intentionally cringe worthy to help with the story down the line. Bear with her moodiness and outburst. I promise she goes back to normal Lucy :)

R&R

AccendoAnimus

The (Lack of) Explosion

Lungs burning, she's running through the dark. The path before her is sparsely lit from the over hanging street lamps. Feet slapping against the cobblestone road, her heavy breathing drowns out the noise. She's so distraught, she hasn't realized that she doesn't have her shoes on. Her tears are blurring her vision; she stumbles against the edge of a wall as she rounds the corner. Not even registering the pain, she picks up her speed. Finally, she's at the forests edge. Dashing in, she starts running up the path; she's walked it so many times before, she knows each twist and turn despite the depressing gloom.

As she reaches the door, she flings her arms against it with all her might. The door swings open wide, revealing a lack of life inside. She thought she would find the salmon-haired boy and a blue cat sitting on the couch, laughing at her for getting so upset at their prank. They'd tease her endlessly for overreacting and she would yell at them while kicking their asses. Instead, she's surrounded by the deafening silence of the dark, cold room.

Collapsing to her knees, she clutches the note in her hand, crumbling it further. As she falls into shock, the words repeat in her head in a never-ending cycle.

Me and happy are goin' on a lil trainin' mission. Be back in a year or so. Tell everybody bye for us, will ya? Thanks Lucy! See you later!

She drops to lay on her side, fully weeping against the hardwood floor. She cries until her cheeks burn and her eyes are swollen. The emptiness in her now is the same she felt when her mother died. No thoughts run through her mind as she cries in self-pity. A dull pain in her feet starts to appear. She glances backward to where she walked in. She could see the traces of blood on the floor from where she came in.

Wanting her soul to leave her body, she turns to lay on her back and stare at the roof. Unsure of how much time has passed she is slightly surprised when she feels one of her gates open. Shortly after, she feels herself being picked up into someone's arms. After moment to adjust her around in their arms, they turn and leave the home. She can see they are beginning to walk her home. Glancing up, she can see the orange hair and tiny ears in the darkness.

"He's gone, Loke. He left me. He was here and now he's gone! " She clutches his suit, wailing into him, wallowing in self pity. He doesn't say a word. He's quiet, too quiet to her. "Loke? Why does everyone keep leaving me?" She weakly whispers.

"I got you, Lucy. We've all got you." He tightens his grip slight, hugging her close. "Always." She nods weakly. Exhaustion and shock fully taking hold, she falls asleep.

A beautiful blonde is sleeping in her oversized, fluffy bed. The light is streaming through some translucent curtains, amply highlighting her face and hair. The room she's in has a vague 'hotel' feeling to it. While her wall may be full of taped newspapers of her friends, the rest of the room is quaint and sparse; as if she hasn't fully unpacked or moved in despite being here for close to a year.

A soft whine breaks through the girl's lips. Her head thrashes to the right and her left leg kicks out from under the covers. Abruptly, she shoots up, waking in a alarm. Her eyes quickly scan her room as she tries to calm her heart. She lets out a large sigh as she flops back on to her pillow, golden hair cascading around her.

"Been a while since I've had that dream." She looks up at the ceiling again, feeling as if she's back on the hardwood floor again. Closing her eyes for a moment, she shakes the thought from her mind. She reaches over to her night stand and grabs her keys. Without even getting out of the bed, she calls out, "Open, gate of the maiden. Virgo!"

After a poof of smoke, a pink haired maid is standing next to her. With short hair and an equally short dress, the maid bows at the waist, one arm against her stomach. Lucy smiles up at her friend, who she still makes fun of for being so formal with her all the time.

"Training already, Princess?" The maid offers her master, Lucy Heartfilla, a hand to help her out of bed.

Standing up, Lucy says, "Well, we have the last day of the Grand Magic Games today. I have to go watch and write a report. I won't be able to train the way Capricorn suggests, but at least I can keep your gate open for the day." Walking over to the bathroom, she exclaims over her shoulder, "Hey Virgo, would you pretty please make breakfast? I'm starvin' "

Virgo bows slightly, happy to help her. "Oh course, Princess. Will you be calling Leo or Arie's as well for the day? I can make them breakfast too." Virgo straightens herself up to wait for her reply.

Putting a finger on her chin, Lucy shifts onto her left foot, sticking out her left hip and puts her hand on it. "Hmm, yeah I will probably grab Loke. You know how he likes to bet on the games. He'll probably open his gate anyway to come watch. I might as well get some training out of it too." Her and Virgo chuckle slight while imagining how he's been the last week; hollering over the balcony where the press hang-out to watch the games while taking notes.

Lucy snickers at the thought of Loke going crazy for battles. "I'll call him after my shower. Even though he's with Aries now, I can't help but worry that he'll peek in."

Virgo smirks at her. "A wise choice, mistress." Lucy watches as Virgo bows again before leaving the room to start cooking.

Lucy walks into the bathroom, smiling at her reflection. Her family was still with her, even if they weren't in this dimension all the time. Humming, she strips and starts her shower. Today was going to be a good day.

Shortly after having breakfast with Loke and Virgo, the trio made their way to their press box. After a scuffle with the guards about a missing pass, she makes her way to her seat by her boss, Jason.

"Morning Jason!" Lucy beams at him with a smile.

"Hey Lu- Loke and Virgo! COOOOL!" He jumps up from his seat and runs over, skidding to a stop in front of the pair. "Lucy, you're still so coooool! Just casually having TWO spirits out just to come hang out just for little old me." He hoots loudly.

Loke rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest. Virgo just blankly stares at him, hands clasped in front of her. "Dude, I don't know why you're still surprised. We've been here everyday this week to watch!" Loke states pointedly at the overly dramatic man. Loke never really got along with Jason since Lucy started working for him.

Jason dramatically laughs again. "Well, can you blame a guy for having such a hot, powerful wizard working for him?!" Lucy turns a tad pink and smacks his arm. "Tsk ouch Lucy, be careful. I'm fragile." Jason whines as he grabs his arm theatrically. Rubbing it slightly, he moves to his seats. Virgo and Lucy share a look of amusement as they sit to watch the beginning of the day's rounds.

After Jason's comment, she can feel the irritation in her link with Loke. He almost immediately runs down the stairs to the betting area to avoid strangling him. With his distance, Lucy could feel a slightly larger drain on her magic, but it was nothing compared to what it used to be. After a year of constantly calling up her spirits, she felt stronger. She mused for a moment on when Capricorn would let her start calling out three of them more than twice a week. Before, training was a way of keeping herself busy and less lonely, but soon it became a waking obsession of hers. Capricorn even came up with routines to get her physically fit. When she reflects on why she's doing this, she doesn't have a complete answer. She tells herself it is just in case of another dragon attack or more demons attacking the country or…. something. Truly, she just hopes Aquarius is watching over her and is even somewhat proud.

Lucy feels a slight nudge in her side breaking her from her train of thoughts. Glancing toward the source, Virgo's eyes meet her. "Princess, the Games are over. They're announcing the winner of the games." Lucy facepalms.

"Oh no, I didn't even take any notes." She groans out loud, worried about what Jason would say. This was her only source of income these days. She loves the job because she could write, but also it lets her make her own make hours. With this flexibility she can train for most of the day and write the filler pieces they wanted from her.

"Fear not, my beautiful Lucy. Your diligent best friend and devishly handsome, older brother figure took notes for you. All the while winning a boat load of jewels and trying not to murder your boss." Loke snorts beside her, ready to razz her for zoning out. She hadn't even notice him return from the betting windows. "I don't know what-" His teasing is cut short as he swiftly springs up to his feet. Only feeling confusion for a moment, Lucy's eyes go wide at her realization. An instant later, Lucy and Virgo jump up out of their seats after him.

"You feel that, right?" Lucy rushes over to the edge of the balcony. Immense magic power streams through the building, rocking the ground. An overwhelming amount compared to what they had felt earlier from the competitors. It makes her teeth rattle and her bones shake.

"What going on Lucy?" She faintly hears Jason call behind her as she scans the crowd, looking for an attacker. Is it a floating beast? Someone standing on a tall building? Are they going to come from under ground?

"I don't know! I thought the games were done with all the battles?! Why is someone attacking now! Who could it be?" Panic filling her to the brim, she flashes back to the attacks from last year. She glances at the guilds competing. No one from any of the powerhouse guilds had come this year; no one who had saved them was here to help if there was an attack. Lucy was alone. She closes her eyes to steady her nerves. She's not alone, she has her friends and team with her.

Just as she was about to call out a star dress that she learned to summon in the last year, Loke drops a heavy hand on her shoulder.

"I will fucking kill him when I get the chance, I promise." He growls and it sounds threatening as it vibrates out from his throat. She glimpses over at her lion as he stares down into the pit menacingly. Feeling a bit of shock from his language, she follows his eyes down the pit where the ceremony was just taking pace.

In the center of the arena, is a man dressed in a dark cloak, flames dripping down the side of his arms. Lucy's breath catches in her throat, unsure of how to react. It can't be, can it? She glances up at Loke again. He gives a faint but distant smile, weakly squeezing her shoulder, he poofs away.

"Call us if you need us after, Princess." With another poof, she too, vanished from sight.

Lucy isn't angry at them for leaving. After what had happened last year, she is relieved Loke left. When Loke goes into 'big brother mode', he truly becomes terrifying. A few of her short-term boyfriends had felt his wrath this year. She grimaces inwardly at the memory of him beating up a guy who wouldn't accept her breaking up with him.

She looks down to the arena when a gust of wind almost blows her off her feet. The people standing behind her are thrown back as the wave hits them all. The masked man has beaten the entire guild and was now releasing an enormous heat way. Warmth and familiarity wrap around her body. As she feels her clothes burn away, she's dazed with emotion and distress. She quickly covers herself with her arms. At this moment, she could care less about the fact that only her clothes were the ones disappearing.

Finally, she looks down the mage and he greets her with a toothy grin. His hair is longer and he's taller, but its clearly him.

"Oh hey Lucy! Nice to see you!" Natsu shouts up to her, wiping some dirt off his clothes. She can vaguely hear Happy behind her, saying something, but Lucy is still frozen. Her eyes haven't left his as she stands in disbelief. Every single emotion she's felt over the last year gushes through her, making her knees weak and her body heavy. She can see an eyebrow raise on Natsu's face as he notices the pause in her reply. After looking at his woolfy grin she finally makes her decision.

She smiles at him gently, forcing happiness to cover her features.

"Hey Natsu."

Food is flying everywhere. They sit in a diner down the road from the jail Natsu was just released from. It's as generic as they come. A breakfast place that stays open all day; one of her and Arie's favorite to go to after their Sunday morning training. It quaint and usually quiet. Their presence here right now is breaking the typical tranquility the establishment normally has.

As the two boys loudly try and explain their adventures to her, she can tell that everyone is staring at them. She views all the empty dishes before her and can tell that she's going to be broke after their feast. Honestly though, she's not surprised their eating to their hearts content after the year they've been through. She can feel Loke's key radiate in anger at her situation and the trace thought of being taken advantage of lingers from him. She tries her best to ignore the rings and dings in her magic. Her friends were finally back, it was time to be happy.

"What about you, Lucy! What did you do this year?" Happy muffles through his fish stuffed cheeks. It was his last one, she notices. Almost time to leave.

Natsu leans back in his seat, one hand on his stomach, one arm on the back of the booth's ledge. Natsu glances up to meet her eyes, also curious about what she's been up to. She can sense the calm he is feeling, but that was it. She couldn't sense any relief or excitement or happiness.

"Oh you know! Working has been tough. I went into journalism after Fairy Tail broke up. I couldn't bring myself to join a different guild." She simply states, humming to herself as she leaves to go to pay the waitress. Happy says something to Natsu, but she's too far away to hear their conversation. Perhaps they're still reminiscing in the adventures just the two of them went on.

Striding up to the waitress, Lucy goes to grab her wallet. Having a quick chat with the waitress about how sorry she was about the mess the boys were making, the woman asks, "Is that Natsu of Fairy tail?" She whispers to Lucy.

"He used to be." Lucy glances over to Natsu and Happy, who were looking in her direction. A thought occurs to Lucy as she continues, "Fairy tail is gone now." She gives the waitress a small smile makes her way back to the boys.

They're done eating at this point. Happy is laying down on the bench of the booth almost asleep. Natsu is sitting silently, staring at an empty plate. She bounces over to the table, trying to get their energy up. She beams at them, "Come on you two. Let's go to my place to relax." Happy springs opens his wings and leaps up.

"Aye Sir!" He shouts out, scaring the couple on a date next to him. He shrugs an apology their way and floats toward the exit.

She giggles at his over the top antics, reveling in the calm before the storm. She glances to Natsu, who is quieter than he was previously while he was eating. He gets up from the booth, standing in front of her. She finally realizes how tall he has grown in the past year. She has to actually look upward to see him. She remembers when they were the same height. He doesn't say anything, but just looks deeply into her eyes.

Feeling uncomfortable, she turns from him to the direction of the door. Glancing over her shoulder, she softly says, "Come on Natsu, let's go home."

He looks down to his feet and nods to himself.

Soft snoring fills the bedroom as Lucy and Natsu play another round of cards at her kitchen table. She's popped open a bottle of wine and the two are sharing it. They've played a few rounds and have finished half the bottle. She's feeling ancy, just waiting for it; the impending explosion that she thinks will change everything- again.

"Earth to Luce?" She sees a hand waving in front of her face. Startling her, she pulls her head back quickly. "Its your turn." He says softly to her.

"Right, my bad." She laughs, a little forcefully and a little too loud. She inwardly grimaces at her awkwardness. She hears him laughing at her.

"You know, you haven't changed much. I feel like sometimes you get lost up there. Like you're narrating a story!" He chuckles again, not meeting her eyes, but smiling down at his cards. He reaches over to take a sip of his drink and steals a glance at her. "Have you been thinking about your novel? You can go write it if you want."

She laughs a bit at his statement. "I guess I do do that sometimes, huh" She grabs her glass as well to take a sip. "And no. I've been a bit too busy to really finish the novel. Its on a hiatus until further notice."

Wines spurts out of Natsu's mouth. "You what?" He wipes his mouth with his arm. "But you always made time for writing! You even used to kick Happy and me out when you got into a creative mode!" He shouts a bit loudly. She wacks his arm to sush him and stop him from waking Happy up.

"Natsu, shhhh!" She changes chairs to sit closer to him. Looking at his face, she stops speaking for a second. For a single, brief moment, she allows herself to remember how attractive he is to her; how much she cared about him. His toothy smile, his dreamy chest and arms. His collar bones….She has missed sitting so close and basking in his warmth. Catching herself, she buries the thought deep down as quick as she can. She couldn't allow herself to feel like that again toward him.

"Well, what have you been doing?" He asks her, cheeks slightly pink at her closeness. It had been a while since her scent surrounded him; it made him a bit nervous and anxious. He knows what she's going to say next and he's scared about what's going to happen.

"Well… I've been working at sorcerer weekly and some training on the side…" She gulps nervously. He sighs at her words. It was time. No more light hearted conversation.

"Why haven't you been taking on any jobs from the guild? Why are you living out here?" He asks in the smallest voice she's ever heard. She can practically feel his heart starting to break.

He's greeted with silence and Lucy shifting around in her chair.

"So what you said to the waitress was true then…" He mutters. He leans back against the chair, waiting for her to react. She winces as he directly calls her out on her actions. They both know she remembers how his hearing works.

"Natsu… I" She can feel sadness build up in her chest, threatening to spill out. She feels like her actions before were petty and she regrets saying anything in the diner. Before she can even say anything, he stands up.

Turning away from her, he walks to the bedroom. "I'll go grab Happy. We'll sleep out here on the couch tonight."

"Yea, okay."

The next few months went by in a blur. The night after the card game, Natsu basically assaulted the castle in the capital, signifying Fairy Tail's return. Deep down in her heart, Lucy was ecstatic. As they were chased out of the city, Lucy felt a bit of terror at the possibility of putting her faith back into him. When he looked back at her as they ran out, with his huge grin, her body forced her to go along with him.

Neither of them spoke again about his absence or what she did in his time away. It became a small layer beneath their feet; neither wanting to move and shatter everything. There were moments in conversations where it was brought up, but the two awkwardly bumbled through it without saying much.

Instead, the pair focused on gathering their friends. In the typical 'Team Natsu' fashion, it was far from easy. They fought off an invading force in the hometown of Lamia scale with Wendy, saved Juvia from her rain depression and ruined Gray's undercover mission in the darkness. In the process, they met up with Gajeel, Levy and Erza. Everything seemed to be coming together. Eventually, the guild was back with Erza at the head of the new 'Fairy Tail."

Before they could even catch their breath, they found out about the impending war. After saving Master Makarov and they began following the commands of Mavis in her war against her ex-lover Zeref. As the war went on, the worst possible event happened, Natsu was revealed to the strongest demon known to man, made from the body of Zeref's brother and made to kill him. While Mavis took care of Zeref, Lucy took care of Natsu. While rampaging, Lucy was the only one able to take him out of his state by rewriting the book of E.N.D. If it has any lingering affect, she has yet to fully notice.

Now, Lucy is in her bed in her old home in Magnolia, feeling like she could finally relax. Last night the guild had had a huge party and she remembers vaguely having a drinking contest with some of the guild mates. She thought she'd have a hangover this morning, but she was feeling okay.

It seems that, for the moment, they had nothing to do. It reminds her of the times before Tenrou Island, where she was allowed to relax and not worry about the future. Sighing, she knew she had to get out of bed to go to the guild. She has a fleeting thought of it all being a big, long dream, and that she was back in the capital and should be on the way to work. However, she glances over and is surprised to find Natsu sitting in her chair, take out food spread across her table.

Angrily, she jumps out of bed and shouts, "This is my room!"

He grins happily at her and raises a hand to wave, totally ignoring her outburst. "Yo!"

Happy is playing around with one of her writing trophies from a fluff article 2 months ago. "Look Lucy! My claws are sparkling too!"

"Its ruined! But this isn't a dream!" She turns to look at Natsu again. "Why are you in my room?" She pouts.

He mockingly matches her pout. "Because you collapsed, and I had to bring you here."

Shocked, she shouts out "I drank too much!?"

She has a momentary freak-out at the thought of Natsu and Happy taking care of a drunk version of her; forcing them to change her and cuddling them to sleep.

"I can never be a bride now." She collapses to hug her knees to her chest.

Natsu, not caring about her embarrassment, happily says "We have a job, come on."

Emotions she hasn't felt in a while come back to her with those words. Flashes of taking jobs together, spending time with the guild, the moments between Natsu and herself… She sees that she keeps denying feelings and pushing them down, but now it was okay to feel. Right? She feels herself staring to tear up. Trying to wipe them away before Happy and Natsu can see, she mutters to herself something they cant understand.

"Just now… I remembered a lot of things…. And the tears just started falling" As fast as she can, she dives into his arms. He's forced to take a step back as his arms fall limply to his side in surprise.

"If I hadn't met you as well, I wouldn't never lived like this." Tears flow freely down her cheeks. "From the bottom of my heart… Thank you."

Shakily, Natsu takes a deep breath and puts his arms around her, he slightly pulls her back so he can lean down to face her. He can see the small blush on her face.

"I wanna say something too…" He watches as she visibly gulps. He smiles and turns to run with her arm caught in his. "We should get to work!"

She growls at him. "when people think youre finally doing something interesting you…"

"Its okay" He looks back to smile at her. "We'll be together forever from now on.'

But it doesn't have the effect he wants. She slams her feet down into the ground, anchoring herself against him and rips her arm away. He looks back at her, unsure as to why she stopped so suddenly. He turns back to hug her again.

"Luce, I said we'd be together forever" He smiles down at her, hoping she doesn't cry anymore. He watches in surprises as she shutters against him at his words.

"Natsu, how can you say that to me?" She flinches away from him, leaving his arms and eliminating their hug.

Hundreds of lonely moments stream through her; thoughts of crying herself to sleep, forcing herself to be happy; begrudgingly accepting the life that was forced upon her; mourning not only a guild and her best friend, but also Aquarius. She could feel the pit of despair come back from when he left her. Feelings of when Fairy Tail disbanded came back with a crashing force. However, her self pity was over in a second. Something new struck through her core that she didn't allow herself to feel before; something she couldn't.. no- wouldn't feel because there was always something more important than her feelings to deal with.

Anger.

So thats chapter one! Everything from this point is obviously non cannon. I wanted to add some of Lucy's feelings during parts of the cannon. Everything else is relatively unchanged from what happened.