Re-cap:

Kyo Sohma has been sent to collect his sister, Lucy Sohma-Heartfilia. Him, and a group of five other Zodiac members of the family are excited and soon to head out and get her back, as a full fledged member of the family, reinstated and forgiven for what she could not control. Lucy finally gets to talk with her brother through the connection and prepares for both finishing her story, and heading out on a mission the next day.

The Forgotten - Well Wishes (Chapter Four)

It hadn't taken long for the group of six to decide how they would split. With two exceeds and two dragon slayers in the mix, the split was quite easy to arrange. Wendy, Carla, and Lucy were to be one team under the group, the other being Gajeel, Pantherlily, and Juvia. Juvia and Gajeel had already worked together, and were actually very open to going right back to it.

They had also picked a name: The Forgotten Fairies.

No one had paid too much attention to it, or them when they would talk about it, so they all agreed that it was perfect for them. It wasn't out of spite, but because they noticed the value of being forgotten by most of the others, the significance of it. They were more capable of slipping around the others and getting a mission done without too much fuss sent their way or others butting in to join.

Team Carla and Team Pantherlily, as they had decided to name the two branches, so as not to argue too much on what they were going to call the sub groups. The exceeds were the most helpful additions to the teams after all, both being exceptional at planning and figuring out how to fight with everyone's strengths.

That said, the exceeds were also left to pick the jobs they felt the team was most capable of.

Lucy and Wendy were able to go on four missions the first day they split up, all of which were collecting information for groups that paid a pretty jewel for the girls to collect. It was lucky that there were so many of them that no one had seemed to notice. They got Mira to give them permission for all four, and started at the farthest one, working their way back in. It wasn't a long journey between jobs, and Lucy had decided to use the time to think about what she would need to get together before visiting her home.

The first job was done in an hour, and the girls quickly got their reward and were on their way to the next mission. Wendy and Carla were fine talking amongst themselves, and Lucy mostly used the time to chat with her brother and plan her trip. Loke would pop in every once in a while and keep them company for a bit before going back to the Celestial Plain.

The second and third jobs took about the same amount of time, and neither girl had any reason to use magic. That was, of course, before the third job ended up being a lot more dangerous than the other three.

It started normal at least, the girls were safely tucked away in the bushes, Carla being in a tree a little ways ahead of them due to her small size. They had even managed to get the information they needed, and were headed back to the client at the time.

That was when one group of members had decided to come back from a job to see the girls and exceed leaving. There was a group of six mages, though the flier and client had said nothing about them being mages or their magic. One was a water mage, and he had been the first to act, trapping Lucy in a water lock of sorts. It wasn't nearly as strong as Juvia's though, and the young mage managed to summon Aquarius with the amount of oxygen she'd been able to take before she was trapped.

The Water-Bearer was none too happy with being summoned in a bubble of water, and the water mage's surprise ended up being what did her in. Aquarius, as usual, began yelling at Lucy, confusing the heck out of the water mage, giving Wendy enough time to take her bandit out as the others had also been a bit shocked. Loke summoned himself and took down two, and Lucy used her Fleuve D'étoiles to get the final mage, having become quite skilled at using the small object.

To be honest though, she preferred using her keys and strengthening her magic. Capricorn often helped her with that, and Virgo had found out a few weeks prior and brought books from the celestial world containing more about the magic that Lucy possessed. Still, Lucy found herself at what she had dubbed as an amateur level. There was so much she still couldn't do, a fact that still plagued her mind when she thought about how much she really had to learn.

The rest of the group acknowledged how quickly she was growing, and how strong her magic was becoming. Master Makorav had even invited her to take part in the S-Class trials again, a fact that her team was still oblivious to.

At the end of the day, when much of the guild had gone home, she approached the man who had become something akin to family. She wasted no time with small talk, getting straight to the point of her being there before the man had even processed who had come to talk with him.

"I would like to request some vacation time from the guild." Lucy said, smiling as she felt her brother reaching out and reassuring her. It was nice to be connected to him again, despite the not so concealed threats he had made towards some of her guild members after watching her mood through the day. Makorav seemed surprised for a moment, especially with the joy she seemed to have in asking despite the way the fairies had been acting over the last few weeks.

"May I ask why?" He broached carefully, trying not to sound as if he were leaning towards one side or the other. Lucy simply smiled brighter, touching her keys softly as they started getting a bit restless, especially Loke, who was a member of the guild himself.

"My family has requested that we all get together again, and the head of the family has given me express permission to be there this time. I've been talking to one of them recently, and I forgot how much I missed them for a bit. I'd like to attend but they live farther away." She revealed, trying not to leave out too much, but not reveal too much either. She could talk about them all for hours, but it might not be quite as appealing to Akito if she did.

"Then of course you may, my child." Makarov answered. "Family is the most important thing, I would never stop you from seeing your loved ones."

"Thank you, Master." Lucy said, letting Kyo know what was happening briefly.

"When will you be leaving?"

"Whenever they come to pick me up. Six of them are on the way now, to ensure that I get there safely." She hadn't meant to say it that way, but found that she'd seamlessly slipped into the way she would address Akito when she needed to meet with him. With that, she let a small lie slip through with an ease that troubled her. "I don't know which one's specifically, but we'll probably leave the day after they arrive."

"Very well. I wish you well on your travels."

'And didn't that sound promising?' Kyo thought to himself after hearing his sister's conversation.

"She's been given leave time." Kyo announced to the other five in the compartment with him.

"You mean you didn't check that she had leave time before?" Hiro asked, laying back in his seat next to Kisa. Kagura had settled on the girl's other side, while Kyo, Hatsu-Haru, and Momiji took up the other bench.

"More like she didn't check, but whatever. She's excited to see everyone, especially now."

"Now?" Kisa asked, leaning forward a bit.

"She's having a bit of trouble up there with some of her guildmates, I think. She won't tell me exactly what's happening. You know how she is." Kisa nodded, leaning back against Hiro, who assured her in hushed conversation that Lucy would be fine, she always was.

"Why didn't Yuki come?" Hatsu-Haru asked, really complained was more the word that fit.

"Lucy didn't want me to bring him." Kyo partially lied, trying to remember what she had said about the rat that supplied a reason for her to not want him there. "She didn't want to have to deal with more noise than she already knew we'd bring. They're celebrating down there."

"Celebrating what?" Momiji asked, his heavy accent causing Kyo to take a moment. It didn't help that he'd said it into his stuffed bunny that followed him everywhere.

"Someone from their guild, I think. She said someone died, but was recently found to be alive. That person rejoined the guild, and they're celebrating having her back"

"How long has she been back?" Haru asked. "We could probably just walk in and take her if it's just started."

"That's the bad part." Kyo said, annoyance coating his tone as he glared at nothing in particular. "They've been at it for at least a few days, I've heard them through our bond and monitored her emotions so that I could be with her whenever it was getting too hard. I don't think she's in school anymore."

"Well that's not great…" Haru commented, and Kyo glanced at the younger boy who looked like he was thinking hard about something.

"I don't think any of them are in school. Fiore is only a few days away by train, but it's almost like an entirely different world over there."

"I hope Lu's okay." Momiji said quietly, hugging his bunny as he leaned against the side of the compartment, trying to give himself enough comfort to fall asleep.

"Maybe Lu-nee needs this more than we do." Kagura said, her eyes filled with sorrowful tears. For once though, Kyo felt a pang of pity for her, knowing that she had no way of understanding just how strong and mature Lucy had grown to become. He relished in being about to know how his twin was feeling, being able to connect with her despite the distance. Sometimes that meant he took it for granted, he knew that.

"She can't wait to see us all, especially her treasured little sisters." Kyo said, hoping that it would ease her worries a bit to know that Lucy missed her just as much as they missed her. Kagura sniffed, smiling sadly and wiping her face where tears had gathered.

"That's good."

'Little Lucy gathered quite the crowd during her time away, didn't she?' Akito thought to himself as he looked through a few magazines with the mage featured. 'She sure didn't hesitate to show off, despite the curse…'

But Akito gasped as his eyes were drawn to the next page, his fists and jaw clenched as he saw something less than pleasing. Lucy was able to hug people of the opposite gender, something that the rest of the Zodiac couldn't do.

"HOW!?" Akito screamed, throwing the paper into the fire. "THAT UNGRATEFUL BRAT! HOW DID SHE MANAGE TO OVERCOME THE CURSE?!"

Fire ate away at the page, where a photograph had been printed of her and her previous team, hugging and having fun after a mission, Natsu clinging to her like he tended to do.

He knew she was partially oblivious to the curse, but this was completely unexpected. Had Layla done something to take away the curse with her horrible magic? Was this the result of banning them both? Why hadn't he been told about this?

When Hatori walked in to give Akito his checkup, the sight of wild eyes and the fire growing out of control greeted him. Akito was midway through a coughing spurt, growing weaker with his unintentional fit.

Hatori calmed him, and managed to control the fire and put the leader of the Zodiac to sleep, but he worried about what would happen when the girl got there herself. If Akito had acted this way after seeing only a picture...

He could only hope that she would stay safe.

Can I just say, I love how many of you are voting Hatsu-Haru. Don't get me wrong, I love NaLu, but there's something about HarLu that just makes me feel all warm and bright. I imagine it may be the Lucy Kick combined with Dark Hatsu-Haru, but who knows? It's been forever, I'm sorry.

HarLu (Hatsu-Haru) - 3

NaLu (Natsu) - 1

ZerLu (Zeref) - 1

MoLu (Momiji) - 0

As always, See you next time!