Author's Note: Since you guys are so awesome people I decided to write this!

Epilogue: And So They Meet—Again

It had been exactly a year since everything about Lucy disappeared—her soft voice, her sweet smiles, and her warm eyes. Natsu had missed everything about her. He misses her, period. He misses going out to peculiar places just to stalk strangers, he misses talking to people and stuttering on every word, and he misses waking up to a feast of delicious food with an annoying ghost by his side.

Now he's waking up to a cold, empty house like always, forced to eat nothing but last night's leftovers or pieces of stale bread because he can't fucking cook (darn it, he should've asked for cooking lessons while Lucy was still here), but at least it's edible, or so he says as some sort of poor attempt of comforting.

Nothing really changed, except for the fact that he's in senior year now and he's not that much hated by everyone anymore (read: not that much).

Jellal and Erza are getting married as soon as they graduate from college (they're currently studying as freshmen at this fancy shmancy prestigious university in Fiore). How they manage to find out that Natsu was the one that got them together, he doesn't even want to know. But the couple sends their best regards and (after countless of threats to cut his balls from Erza if he doesn't attend) invited Natsu to their wedding, telling him to bring a date.

'Chyeah. Like hell I would.' the latter sardonically replied with an eye roll.

"Natsu-san!"

A smile unknowingly graces his lips when he hears a high-pitched voice calling his name. Standing up, the latter grabs his bag and gets outside of his house with a grin, ruffling the hair of the now high school student beside him.

"Hey, Wendy,"

"Jeez, you don't have to mess with my hair, you know. I spent a long time fixing it." Wendy replies, pouting. She fails her arms childishly around Natsu cheekily.

It had been quite a habit for them to walk to school together. In fact, Wendy purposely chose the same school as Natsu's just so they could become closer. She'd become fond of the guy after he tutored her, stating that he's 'really amazing and smart'.

Oh please, we know it's all because of a certain blonde ghost.

"Really?" A cheeky grin appears on Natsu's face, and he turns to Wendy with a familiar, mischievous glint in his eyes. "Are you sure you didn't do that just to look cute for Romeo?"

Almost immediately, the blue haired girl turned red, flailing her arms around the older.

"Ha! I knew it! Wendy likes Romeo! Wendy likes Romeo! Wendy and Romeo sitting on a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a ca-"

"Seriously Natsu, teasing a freshman and you call yourself a senior?"

The pink-haired latter immediately stops teasing, turning around with a soft grunt. His scowl deepens further when he realizes it was no other than Gray (oh, and his girlfriend, Juvia). "Seriously Gray," he folds his arms in a mocking manner, tilting his head cockily, "wearing nothing but boxers and you call yourself a civilized person?"

Indeed, the raven-haired teen was sporting his usual boxers today. His girlfriend didn't seem to mind, though. She was still busy ogling him and making love-love hearts and yelling, "Gray-sama, you're the best!" And to think Natsu thought of her as a normal person…

"Natsu-senpai, good morning!"

"Good morning, Dragneel-san!"

"Oh, good morning, Natsu!"

The feeling of being accepted by your peers is still a bit foreign to Natsu. Not that he hated it, though. It felt quite great to actually belong. Now that last year's seniors disappeared, there was no one to bully him anymore (turns out his batch mates didn't approach him because they were afraid to get bullied, too) and the freshmen are actually fond of him.

Or more like his pink hair.

He doesn't mind, though. He loves the attention, actually. Like he's famous or something.

XXX

They arrive a little later just in time for the teacher to walk inside. Their homeroom teacher is a baldy old man in his sixties who's about to retire. He starts his speech by saying this would be his last year teaching—Yipee, Natsu thought with an eye roll—and that there would be a new student today.

This caught everyone's attention. New students are rarely entered after the start of the school year. Usually you have to enroll during summer and attend the welcoming ceremony. Either you're really smart, or you have really good connections.

"Ah. You may come in now. And greet your classmates warmly, okay?"

As if on cue, the door immediately slams open, and a bunch of yellow was the first thing Natsu saw, followed by the figure of a teenage girl.

Wait. Yellow.

Blonde hair. Pink ribbon. Huge chest—wait, what—and twinkling brown eyes.

'Don't tell me…'

"My name is Lucy Ashley and I'll be your classmate from now on! Please take care of me!"

Natsu freezes in his spot, staring at Lucy with wide eyes. "Ashley-san," his teacher begins to scan the classroom, eyes immediately dropping on the empty seat beside Natsu. "Why don't you take a seat beside Dragneel-san, okay? He's the one with the pink hair."

Weird, Natsu first thought. Why isn't anyone surprised? Why isn't anyone reacting? Lucy was famous during her school days here. Aren't they surprised that someone proclaimed dead is suddenly walking towards him right now with a huge, silly grin?

Lucy sits beside him, silent but still donning her happy look. Suddenly, she turns to Natsu, and the lad almost falls in his seat due to the surprise.

His heart suddenly beats fast, cheeks turn red, and he almost wets himself when Lucy leans closer with her signature, ear-splitting grin. All the memories suddenly go back to him. The way Lucy laughs whenever Natsu makes a joke, the way she smiles like she's on crack, the way she pouts whenever he brushes her away, the way she brushes a stray strand of hair behind her ear whenever she's frustrated. Everything. And Natsu remembers why he fell in love.

"It's nice to meet you again...

…Nat-chan."

Author's Note: Oh my god! Thank you so much for all the support (the reviews, the follows, and the faavvvss)! I FREAKING LOVE YOU GUYS! Thank you for all the people who followed this story since the prologue last year! I'll be updating "Interrobang" next year so I hope you guys enjoy it after reading this! THANK YOU!