I hope y'all are staying healthy. Quarantine is at it's end for me, but I'm gonna keep trying to write.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.


Title: Coming Home

Pairing: Erza x Lucy

Requester: centerpointwitch

Prompt: Coming home


Fairy Tail had been Erza's home for a very long time. No matter what she had endured before, and her dim memories of Rosemary, she had always felt comfortable in the closeness of her guildmates. Not necessarily safe - she would never feel safe so long as Jellal was still out there, so long as the Tower of Heaven still stretched towards the sky. Her armor made her feel more secure, more prepared against anything that might happen. But safe? No. Never safe.

So it was with great surprise, that Erza suddenly found herself… letting down her guard. Especially around Natsu's new teammate. And now her own teammate, she supposed. It wasn't official, but she knew that others in the guild already considered her, Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Happy to be a full team now. Natsu wasn't big on formalities or paperwork, so she doubted that either her or Gray were registered properly, but… Still. Her team. That was a first, too.

It was strange, too, how easy it was to speak to Lucy. Natsu and Gray were like her brothers - people she had known for many, many years. And Happy was… Happy. All three of them were comfortable, familiar presences in Erza's life. It was easy to know where she stood, where to draw the line around herself with them. They wouldn't trespass that line. They knew enough not to.

But no matter how hard Erza tried to draw one around herself, to define her boundaries with Lucy, the more she found Lucy easily crossing it, and getting under Erza's guard. The girl was friendly, and kind. It was convenient to assume that there was no guile there at all, even when Team Natsu and then Gray as well went behind Erza's back and took that S-Class quest. Even when Lucy had proved herself as an adept keeper of secrets as Erza herself when it came to her past before Fairy Tail.

The girl had even managed to convince Erza to discard her armor completely in front of another - a feat no one had managed to accomplish since she had hit puberty. And… Lucy had called her beautiful. Erza was used to being called a demon, a monster, or an ogre. It was… nice to be seen. Truly seen.

Whenever Lucy called out to her, or greeted her with a smile, a curious warmth would spread throughout Erza's body, her shoulders would unconsciously relax, and before she knew it an answering smile would be on her face.

And she would find words bubbling to the surface, words that she had never truly considered saying before to another person. Words that she had never believed herself worthy enough to say.

"I'm home, Lucy."

Somehow, she felt that even if she were to slip and say them, Lucy wouldn't mind at all. She would just smile back at her, and say, "Welcome home, Erza."