Re-Cap:

Lucy and her family are having a nice reunion in the middle of the guildhall while the rest of the Forgotten Fairies watch quietly, and decide that it's high time they all took a vacation. Lucy's decided that she'll be staying on the Sohma family land for at least a month. Things are starting to look up in their lives.

Meanwhile, Akito calls Shigure to meet with him, and Shigure reflects on something that Lucy said a very long time ago.

The Forgotten - Catching Up (Chapter Six)

After avidly chatting in the guild for a bit, Lucy decided it was time to just take the Sohma family to her apartment. They all seemed nervous in the Guildhall, probably from all the people around that could accidentally bump into them and cause their secret to be revealed. Leaving was the best way to solve that, so she bid her friends goodnight and took them with her back to the apartment. It was small and cramped, but there was still enough room for them to all move about. Kyo, Hatsu-Haru, and her took the couch, while Hiro and Kisa took her armchair and Kagura sat at her table. Momiji had decided to sit on the table, letting his legs swing back and forth lazily.

They kept talking about small things at first, how she was enjoying the guild and the girl that was living with Kyo but wasn't part of the zodiac. The conversation turned to their school life and Lucy's lack thereof, perhaps she would take an entrance exam and start back at her education while she was down there. Thoughts like that had never seemed so appealing, as most schools she went to tended to have petty little girls who thought they were better than everyone else just because daddy came upon a bit of cash. She couldn't stand spoiled rich snobs like that, but she tried desperately to at least stay civil with everyone.

Still, there were some valid reasons to start school again, including the fact that she would get to see Kyo and the others more often. Perhaps her other friends would join her in that endeavor, but it was never particularly good to be uninformed. Akito would probably be mad enough at her when he found out she wasn't already enrolled in a school anymore. It had been a necessity of her father to make sure she still got the best education though, so she would be able to catch up rather quickly if they were still teaching the way they had when she left.

Back to a more pressing matter though, she let her mind travel while they continued filling her in, planning out sleeping arrangements for the night. If I put Hatsu-Haru and Momiji on the bed… Or maybe I could fit me, Kisa, and Kagura instead? That or Kisa and Hiro could sleep in the chair, Momiji, Kagura, and I on the bed… That leaves Haru and Kyo, but they can't share…

A gentle prodding in her mind had her focusing back on her brother, who was being unusually quiet. He wasn't looking at her, but that didn't mean she didn't have his sole focus at the moment. She'd learned that the hard way years ago.

-Flashback-

Kyo sat across from a six year old Lucy, skimming through a book about something or another they were learning in school. He wasn't really there of course, he was all the way at the land owned by their family, but he was right here as well.

Lucy blinked, entertaining the thought that she was seeing things for a moment.

'You're not.' Her brother's voice sounded through her mind. The young Heartfilia heiress shook her head, turning back to the workbook she had been assigned to complete that week. Movement in her peripheral vision had her looking back at where her brother had been, but he wasn't there anymore. He spoke again though, this time from over her shoulder. 'You got number three wrong, and you set up the one you're doing wrong. You need to set the sum equal to zero, not the equations equal to each other.'

'How are you even here? I thought Akito didn't like you visiting the estate.'She fired back, correcting her mistakes as she did so. Really, she was just looking for something to distract him so she didn't have to admit he was right about question three. She'd gotten that one wrong on purpose, in hopes that a mistake as silly as that would warrant at least a moment of her father's attention. At the standstill they were in now, she would be fine with just about anything.

'Well first of all, you didn't fix three. Second of all, I'm not actually in your mansion.' The image of Kyo settled back down, his eyes lazily flicking through the pages of what looked like the most boring book on the planet. 'Third of all, I resent that comment you just made about my book. I'll have you know that this is a complete collection of the recorded history of our family.'

'Oh please do excuse me then, you're absolutely correct. It doesn't sound like the most boring book on the planet, that scale is too low. The universe, definitaly.'

'Like you could do much better with your books about the stars and things. I'm not the one currently working through problems in a math book.'He still wasn't looking at her, but the smirk she caught on his face told her he was monitoring her emotions very carefully to see if he'd gotten a rise out of her.

"Shut up, at least the stars don't mock me like you do.'

'No?'

'No!'

'What's Aquarius doing all the time then?'

'Oh hush, and get out of my head you lousy snoop.'

'After you fix question three. Being petty isn't gonna catch you anymore attention than being good has. If he doesn't wanna see you as the daughter he took in and fully committed to raising, then that's his loss. You're better than him anyways.' To say that Lucy was shocked would have been an understatement. She couldn't believe the words that had just spilled from her brother, as sweet and thoughtful as they were. He wasn't the type of person to be all mushy and sentimental like that in the first place.

But Lucy smiled brightly at the hallucination, or projection, or whatever, of her brother before turning back to her work.'Thank you, Kyo.'

He didn't say anything for a long moment, just sat there quietly, but just before he left, he muttered a quick 'You're welcome.'

'Calm down Kitty, I'm just trying to figure out sleeping arrangements.'

'Yeah, don't call me kitty.' She could just barely feel the tinge of annoyance that he'd tried to cover at the name being used. There was also a slight swell of pride when he realized that the deep feeling of satisfaction at fur being ruffled was coming from his dear sister.

It wasn't often that she took pride in being able to annoy her twin, but it was always nice to know that she still had the capability. Shigure had once told her that people are easily annoyed only if the cause of their annoyance is something that they care a great deal about.

That made Yuki easily able to annoy him thanks to the curse at play in the larger scope of her family. 'Maybe I would, if you would kindly stop plucking your way into my head at any convenience to yourself.'

'Well, now someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. What happened to all that gratitude for us coming to pick you up?'

'Oh I left it at the Guildhall after you ever so kindly told everybody about that time I so gracefully knocked down the trio of idiots standing too close to the swing. Leaving out of course, just how close they were to the swing.' She could tell he was trying very hard not to crack up, but the amusement that lit up in his eyes was more than enough for her to grasp just how funny he found that story.

'You and I must have two very different memories of that day.' Kyo's voice said, and though he was succeeding in not breaking his outward appearance for laughter, it certainly echoed around in her mind. Lucy then did something that she had never done before.

She pushed her memory of the incident in question directly into his head. By the way he winced and started rubbing his head afterwards, she guessed doing things like that weren't something they should be doing at such a rate. Either way, it had pushed the boy out of her mind so she was free to focus back on what she needed to do.

Kagura, Kisa, and I will take the bed; Hatsu-Haru and Momiji can sleep on the couch; and Kyo will be with Hiro in the chair. That sounds reasonable enough.

"So who was your guildmate that came back?" Haru's voice called as he finally joined the conversation. The question startled her, as she hadn't really been participating in the previous conversation either, but all the attention had shifted to her now.

"Her name's Lisanna. Her brother and sister were overjoyed to have her back, and she used to be Natsu's partner. They hatched Happy together." Lucy said, trying to recall everything she had heard about the girl before the guild stopped communicating. "They thought she died in an accident a few years back, but it turned out that she'd been transported to an alternate world called Edolas."

"How did she get back to Fiore?" Momiji asked, leaning in closer to the girl as he listened with rapt attention. It wasn't the first time he'd done that, the younger boy was always eager to hear a good story.

Lucy let out a small laugh as she turned to her excited cousin. "I was getting to that." She assured the curious rabbit zodiac member. Momiji leaned closer still from his place on the table, his hands clutching onto the edge for support. "Well firstly, I should tell you that none of it would have been possible without the help of one of our most mysterious guildmates, Mystogan. It was the only time I've ever met the man in person…"

For a good portion of the night, the family stayed just like that, Lucy telling them countless stories they asked about. Some of them being things she had to refer to in other stories that came a tale or two before the one she was telling. Other stories came from them simply asking if there were any other tales she could share about her time in the guild.

It wasn't long after midnight that she was left with only the attention of her brother and Hatsu-Haru. She knew for a fact that her brother wasn't exceptionally interested in her stories, and Haru hadn't shown that he particularly cared about what she was telling them, something else on his mind. When Momiji's soft snores pierced the air, she turned her attention to the ox zodiac.

"So-" Haru started, drawing out the word as he tried to search for the right way to voice his thoughts. "How long has the girl been back anyways?"

Lucy didn't answer right away, not because she didn't think it merited answering, but because she genuinely wasn't sure at the moment. "Longer than a week, but less than six?"

"You don't know?"

"I stopped counting." Lucy commented, shrugging as he thought about that for a moment.

Kyo didn't comment, but the cat couldn't help the twinge of pain that he felt in return to his sister's hidden sadness. He couldn't help but wonder just how badly this was really hurting her, especially since she was so quick to put up her walls.

"She what?" Ayame asked as he and Shigure sat down for tea a few days after the latter's visit with Akito. "You can't be serious!"

"I am." Shigure assured, taking a long sip from his cup. "Akito's not happy with it, but there's not much that can be done if the curse is broken."

"And she's still able to act as if she is a part of it?"

"As far as we know. I haven't heard anything from the kids yet."

"And where are Miss Honda and dear Yuki today?"

"Away for the moment. They don't know that the others are off picking up our Princess yet."

"Are you waiting to tell them?"

"They'll find out soon enough."