Previously on…
Master came closer and we quieted, waiting for his words. "We are victorious. But I had very little to do with it. This victory is yours, my children!"
"It's in ruins. They really did a number on it, huh?", Master sighed as he stood before the ruined guild hall. I stared at the demolished building, my heart feeling heavy, as I leant on Gray.
"Master." Lucy's quiet voice echoed throughout the area. "I-I'm so sorry." Tears dripped down her face, and I nudged Stella, who was clinging to my leg towards her. Lucy looked like she was in desperate need of comfort.
"Ah child, you've been through alot lately, but don't let it get you down." Master said gently to the distraught celestial mage as Stella clung to her leg.
"Yeah Lucy, show us a smile!" a cheerful voice called out from the steps. Everyone turned to witness Levy, Jet, and Droy climbing down them to smile at us. "We beat Phantom, so there's no reason for you to be sad."
As Lucy and Levy reconnected and Lucy broke down once again. I smiled. I was so glad Levy was okay, and that the guild going to be fine. I smiled up at Gray who returned my grin. Then we both blushed when we realized what position we were in. He had his arm around my waist, and I had mine around his. We both yanked our arms off of each other, as hastily redirected our attention to the Master, who had begun to speak.
"I know we can only share our feelings so much, our happiness and sadness can only be showed to an extent. But to be a part of guild means to share those feelings. One person's happiness is everyone's happiness, one person's anger, is everyone's anger, and person's tears become everyone's tears. There's no reason for you to feel guilty, no reason for you to cry. Everyone here has proven that they care about you." Luy wept and Master turned around to face her, "Hold your head high my dear, because you are a proud member of the Fairy Tail family." Lucy took a huge breath and burst into wails, but she held her head up. Levy went over and began to comfort her and everyone grinned at the scene they made.
Later, about a week after that fateful day, we had already begun rebuilding the guild. It was going great, I was in charge of disciplining those who were slacking off so I was having fun with that. Then the rune knights showed up. They dragged everyone into a military camp they had set up. Everyone went through daily interrogations. I admit though, I had fun pissing off the interrogators. Cana and I had a bet running to see how many interrogators we could drive to quit. I won that one though. They didn't like being frozen to their seats much.
Everything worked out though, despite then fine that was leveled on Master for Cana and I's antagonization of the soldiers, and we returned to working on rebuilding the guild hall.
Natsu and Gray were fighting once again, and then I picked up on an unusual scent. It was faint, almost like water was covering it.
I surreptitiously slid my drink down to Cana, who picked it up and began to chug it without dropping a beat. I slid behind a wall and began to follow my nose, leading to a spot where I could tell someone had been, but was now gone.
"Oi, Aquila!" I left the hiding spot when I heard Natsu call my name. "We're going to check on Lucy want to come?"
"You know it!" I grinned as Stella flew over and plopped down on my head.
""Stelle, we're headed to Lucy's!" I smiled up at my cat.
"Yay! Lucy always makes me nice tea!" Stella chirped as we made our way to the apartment on Strawberry Street.
I went through the front door with Erza, and set about to making a cup of tea for myself, her, and Stella. As the boys crawled through the window and chimney, I sniffed and turned my head. "Barbarians." I murmured, causing Stella to giggle.
"Hasn't anyone ever taught you boys to use a door?", Erza said as she sipped her tea.
We quickly came to the realization that Lucy was nowhere to be found in her apartment. "Lucy?" Happy called out as he opened a drawer.
"She wouldn't be in there, gah!" Gray and Natsu both turned pale with shock as hey looked in the drawer. Erza went red as she looked in as well.
I sauntered over with Stella as we took a look in as well.
"Where do you buy underwear like this?" Happy whimpered out.
"That's underwear?!" Gray gulped.
"I've never seen anything like it!" Erza mumbled. "Where would you even wear that?"
Stella peered in before I could stop her and piped up, "Aquila wears-" then I slapped my hand over her mouth. No need for them to go snooping through my underwear drawer next.
I shook my head at Stella and distracted her with a lollipop from the stash Lucy kept for Plue.
"Hm?" I turned to see Erza moving towards a note on the dresser. I followed her over, then turned back around when Happy yanked a drawer out of the desk that contained dozens upon dozens of letters.
"So many letters…" Gray stated.
"And they're still sealed." Erza observed.
Natsu cracked open one of them and began to read. " Dear Mom, Today was a very special day because I joined the Fairy Tail guild. I met the most beautiful wizard named Erza, and her partner Aquila. They're actually really nice and cool." Erza blushed at the description adn I smiled. It was nice to know how Lucy had thought of me. "Erza's always stopping Natsu adn Gray from fighting, while Aquila tends to laugh at them all."
"Are these all addressed to her mom?" Gray murmured as he examined the address.
"Looks that way." Happy added.
"How come she never mailed them?" Natsu wondered aloud.
"I found a note. Evidently Lucy left it for us." Erza held up the note, only five words written on the page. I will go home, Lucy. "It says she's going home."
"WHAAAT?!" Natsu, Gray, and Happy screamed.
"No way! Lucy would never leave us!" Natsu yelled.
"She's not leaving us, right Aquila?" Stella whimpered, as she clung to my leg. I gently patted her head while listening to Natsu and Gray freak out. Erza looked bewildered and I noticed her clench her hands into fists to hide her shaking.
"ENOUGH!" I yelled, causing the room to go silent. "There's only one thing to do…"
And then…
We sprinted up the hill. "Come on, we still have to catch her!" I yelled back as Natsu sprinted past me.
"No time to lose!" He roared as we all raced to catch Lucy before she could leave us forever.
We spotted her standing in front of a statue of an angel.
"Lucy!" we all screamed as we ran up to her.
"Lucy!" Happy and Stella cried as the crashed into her chest. "Don't leave us!"
"What?! Who said anything about leaving?" Lucy asked as she stroked Happy adn Stella's fur.
"You left a note saying you were coming home! But we won't let you leave Fairy Tail!" Natsu declared.
Lucy smiled and laughed. "I was just coming home to tell my Dad to never try to hurt Fairy Tail again. I'd never leave the guild!"
Gray slumped over as Natsu complained that our effort was for nothing. I merely shared a smile with Erza. Our team was still together.
Lucy wished the staff good bye and we set out for the train station, to ride back to Magnolia. "I'm sorry guys, I didn't mean to freak you out."
"There's no need to apologize, we shouldn't have jumped to conclusions." Erza said with a shake of her head.
"Yeah, with thought you were going back for good." Gray added.
"Happy here, was crying like a baby." Natsu said, trying to conceal his own emotions. The fool had been crying just as bad as the exceeds.
"I gotta tell you, I'm kind of digging your hometown." Gray said as he glanced around the town. It was beautifully built, all the houses were white stone and the lawns were carefully maintained.
"Oh, it's not a town." Lucy said with a grin. "This is just part of our gardens. The Heartfilia estate goes all the way to that mountain over there." Lucy pointed out a mountain that had to be miles away.
I whistled low as the boys started to freak out. "Damn Lucy, your family is loaded." As Erza seemed to overload from the shock, Lucy burst into laughter. As we all walked back to the train station, all seemed right with the world for now.
A/N: I'm alive. I'm here! And this is the next chapter! It's short to be honest but I wanted to get it out there and wrap this arc up! Next up is our dear Erza's backstory! Sorry for the mini-hiatus but real life is getting really busy for me. So, I'm going to go to bi-monthly (as in 2 updates per month). School has ramped up so I need to focus on that too. When summer or a break rolls around I'll go back to weekly. Thanks for understanding and don't forget to review!