Too late to Realize

A/N: Hi hi! I'm back after not to long yay! I was so happy to get all those reviews (it's a lot for me) xD. So thanks to all of my reviewers and of course to all those who followed and favourited this story. I changed to writing in Word by the way so I'll change my layout of chapters a bit (I was writing in Google drive)

Just to make things clear in case anyone alse was wondering about this. I know that Lector's actually alive in the manga but I just thought it would make Lucy and Sting in similar situations, like you know, they don't really have any family anymore, except for the guild.

Oh by the way the poll I mentioned in the last chapter has 5 Votes for Childhood friends, 4 Votes for What started out as friends and 1 Vote for Hatsune Miku-Kaichou and the Vice-Presient

Just to say again:

If you want me to focus on one of my stories during my holidays in July please do vote for which one of two. I also have ones that I have not started yet but will if it gets a lot of votes. Story summaries are on my profile.

The two hours had passed and Sting was waiting at the train station for Lucy. He had a medium sized luggage with him with just the necessities inside. To tell the truth, he was already feeling stick just by seeing the trains. To his luck Lucy came not long after he arrived, with her she had a big luggage.

"Hey Sting." She greeted him, her face seemingly happy but Sting could tell, it was a total lie.

"Hey Lucy. So can we please board the train and get away as soon as possible from train stations?" He asked her, trying to brighten her up a bit.

She laughed: "Sure let's go. We don't want you throwing up now, do we?" They went to the right platform and entered the train and after searching a bit they found seats to sit.

There were four seats there, two facing the other two and so they put their luggage on one side and sat on the other. Sting, of course, felt ill once the train just started moving. Since Lucy was there he was trying to act normal, but that didn't really work out. Lucy was laughing her head off as it is, but once she stopped she pulled Sting's head to lead on her shoulders and started to pat it slowly.

"I always used to do this to Natsu and after a while he would fall asleep." She explained after seeing his confused face.

"Sorry...I-I made...you...think of that... bastard." Sting tried to say.

Lucy was right, it really did help him and soon enough he was sleeping peacefully. Lucy sat there, still patting him not feeling up to sleeping.

After some time passed they reached their destination and got off the train, Lucy having to help the poor Sting. She walked out of the train station and went to a nearby park and sat on the bench placing Stings head onto her lap.

Slowly Sting's eyes began to open up and he looked around to find Lucy's brown eyes. He saw her face and noticed that that fake happiness from before was totally gone and the real and saddened face showed itself.

Lucy couldn't stop remembering the funny things she did on missions with team Natsu. Now that she thought about it she felt like she had nowhere to go after she left the guild. She had no relatives, and felt as if she didn't have a single friend even though she would consider everyone from the guild except for Natsu and Lisanna to be her friends. But Natsu betraying her was just too much for her. If she could, she would cry her heart out at a place where nobody could laugh at her, hear her crying and see her crying. If she could she would just scream every little thing out that frustrated her.

"Hey Sting... Would you mind being my friend? 'Cause you know even though it's wrong, I feel like I don't have any friends or family right now. But if you don't want to be friends, it's okay." Her face was on the verge of letting tears fall.

"Lucy, you know what? It's kinda weird to ask a friend if they would want to be your friend. I mean of course I'm your friend, if I wasn't I wouldn't have offered you to train you. From now on we'll become even better friends than you were with Natsu so that you'll forget about him betraying you. And besides, you joinded Sabertooth right?" He tried to reassure her.

"Yeah, thanks Sting." She gave him a sweet smile.

That smile, that was the face Sting wanted to see from her, not that sad one. She looked so much better like that. Somehow Sting felt like he had to make sure that that smile would last there forever, though he didn't know why.

"No problem Lucy. Now should we look around the place first and then head for the mountain?" Sting got up from her lap.

"Sounds great." She followed him.

Natsu woke up in the infirmary and looked around. In the bed next to his was Lisanna who started to open up her eyes.

"Hi, Lisanna." He said, quite confused as to how he ended up in the infirmary.

"Hi, Natsu." Lisanna said.

Oh, right. Aquarius attacked me, but why? The Salamander was thinking, I didn't do anything to Lucy... right?

"Erza, the one and only idiotic Flame-Brain is awake now." Gray entered the room.

After that being said an angered Erza came walking in, better said stomping in. She walked up to Natsu and stood next to his bed. She slowly raised her arm a bit and Natsu was wondering what she was up to. But by the time he realised it, it was too late.

*Slap*

Erza had slapped him, and that hard: "Idiot! Why did you do that?! Why did you want to let Lisanna join the team when we made Lucy leave because it was dangerous to go on missions with us since Lucy wasn't as strong as us?! Is your brain really that small to not remember something like that?! I mean Lisanna isn't even as strong as Lucy, yet! Sorry Lisanna didn't mean it an offending way." She finished the last sentence in a calm tone.

"Yeah, it's fine." Lisanna simply said. She really didn't mind, she knew already that Lucy's much stronger than her.

After hearing what Erza literally screamed into his ear, Natsu was lost in thought. Shit, what did I do to Lucy. She might have misunderstood and think that I just wanted her to leave the team so that Lisanna can join, but that's not true. It was just, after she left missions became boring and just not the same, then again I couldn't possibly drag her into all the danger again just because doing missions without her was boring. So I decided to ask Lisanna since she wasn't in a team. Why did I do that? I hope Lucy's not going to ignore me now, I'm going to apologise later. His eyes were wide open now.

"Where's Lucy? I'll go apologise to her." Natsu asked, but saw Erza and Gray's face turn from angry to sad.

"She quit Fairy Tail." Erza explained shortly.

"She probably left Magnolia already for all you know." Gray added.

"Sorry Lisanna, you can't join team Natsu after all." Natsu told her and ran out of the room.

He left the building and went to Lucy's apartment and entered from the window. But she was gone, in fact everything was gone. Well, except for a stack of letters on the table with everyone from the guild's names, excluding Natsu and Lisanna. Lucy's scent was still quite fresh so Natsu went out and ran for the station.

But by the time he reached it, he saw the train leave with Lucy sitting next to a sick Sting, and she was laughing a lot. Then, he saw Lucy stopped laughing and she gently placed Sting's head onto her shoulders. Why is she with him? And why is she letting him rest his head on her shoulder? I thought she only did that for me. Natsu was confused. But he made his way back to her apartment and smelled her scent, after a while it'll sadly go away and this apartment will be really empty. He took the stack of letters and went back to the guild to hand it to everyone who was at the guild hall.

Erza started to read her letter:

Dear Erza,

You know for me you were always like the big sister I never had. Thanks for caring for me so much. Haha, I bet after Natsu wakes up, or maybe he's already awake, you're going to slap him and yell at him, or already did. I hope you'll let me remember you as the big sister that I never had, and maybe we'll see each other again someday.

-Lucy

"Stupid of course you can." Erza whispered to herself and started to cry, not going on missions with Lucy was already hard enough.

Gray read his as well:

Dear Gray,

By the time you see this I'll probably be on the train already, I bet once Natsu wakes up or woke up you would just give him a death glare and call him Flame-Brain while letting Erza do the yelling at him. Actually I never noticed this until now, but you were always like an older brother to me Gray. Thanks for everything maybe we'll see each other in the future.

-Lucy

"No problem, Lucy." Gray started to cry as well.

Lucy's letter hit Levy hard:

Dear Levy,

I bet once you know that I left the guild you'll be very sad and start to hate Natsu. You're my best friend Levy and I hope you see me as your best friend as well, I also hope that it'll stay like that forever. I'm not sure if Natsu had a real reason for wanting Lisanna to join, but please ask him about it, and if he's reason is reasonable, please give him the letter I wrote for him that is also in the envelope.

-Lucy

"Hey, Natsu?" Her voice was a bit shaky.

"Yeah Levy?" He said and walked a bit closer to her.

"Could you tell me the reason why you wanted to let Lisanna join your team?" She was looking at him straight in the eyes, no, she was glaring.

"Because doing missions without Lucy wasn't normal, it was boring and just not the same. I couldn't possibly ask her to join again, I knew she would, but I didn't want her to get into so much danger again, the only reason why we asked her if she wanted to quit. So I thought maybe if I asked Lisanna it would be a bit better, and I totally forgot that Lisanna isn't as strong as Lucy. I-I hope you won't hate Levy and that you'll forgive me, you know, since you're Lucy's best friend." He explained tears forming the more he spoke.

Hmm...reasonable enough: "Then here Natsu, Lucy told me to give this to you if I thought your reason made sense in any way." She handed him his letter.

He read the letter, the tears still in his eyes:

Dear Natsu,

I'm not sure if you'll get this letter, it depends on if your reason was okay or not, incase Levy didn't tell you. You, Natsu Dragneel, were my very first friend and maybe even closer friend than Levy. You brought me to Fairy Tail, the guild I always wanted to join, formed a team with me and went on missions with hilarious, funny, scary, furious and serious moments and always managed to save me. Yet, it felt like, once I left the team, you asked Lisanna to join, as if that was your plan all along. As if you made a team with me and waited for Lisanna to return from Edolas and after some time, kick me out of the team. It may be not true but that's how I feel about it.

I didn't tell anyone else so if you didn't get this letter no one would know, I joined Sabertooth thanks to Sting and he promised me he'll train me, so that in five months I can maybe join the next Grand Magic Games. It's up to you if you want to tell the others of this. I really hope you had a good reason Natsu.

-Lucy

P.S.: Please don't even think about looking for me Natsu

The tears in his eyes made their way down his cheeks more following after. He was crying so much, that he just felt like dying.

Mirajane also got one:

Dear Mira,

Thanks for all the times you have helped me. Just like all the other members of Fairy Tail. You're very important to me. But I'd like to ask you of just one last favour, and I'm asking you because she's your sister. I'm not sure but I can't help but think that Lisanna was plotting something, you know wanting to join team Natsu and all... So I want you to somehow confirm it for me if I was right or not and if I wasn't please give her the letter that's in the same envelope.

-Lucy

By now all the rest of the guild members who were not on missions read their letter and the whole guild was crying.

They were looking at a weapons store when something caught Lucy's eye: "Sting, do you think that Throwing Stars fit to me? 'Cause these here made me want to change weapons."

He looked over to the stars she was pointing at. Lucy had good eyes for this kind of things, Sting had to agree to that. The Stars she pointed at really suited her, it was black in the middle had some blue and some pink to it.

"Yeah, it would really suit you, better than your whip. You want to buy it?" He was looking at her again.

"Yeah I guess so, sir, how much do these cost?" She asked the person who owned the store.

"Those would be 1'000'000 Jewels miss." He told her.

"What 1'000'000 Jewels?! That's almost seven times my rent and I don't even have that much." She complained.

"Sorry miss, but that's the least we could sell it for. This star's metal is from nine years ago, from the dragon called Metalicana. Since the dragon disappeared this is one of the few stars with such fine metal." He explained.

"If you want I can buy it for you Lucy, being the guild master gives one a lot of Jewels." Sting offered her.

"No, it's okay. You're already helping me train, I can't possibly owe you the time you waste on training me and a million Jewels. I pay for my things and you pay for yours." She said angry at his suggestion.

"Hmmm... Then how much are these sir?" She pointed towards a mainly black one with a bit of white in the middle and the sharp edges being pink and blue.

"Oh, those are much cheaper, they're 70'000 Jewel." She told her.

"Then, I'll buy five of those sir." She handed him the money.

"I'm sorry you couldn't buy the ones you wanted miss. Please accept this for free, It's a bag made for throwing stars and when you have one star left, it'll make so much more so that there will be the amount of stars you put in, again. You can attach it to a belt." He handed her a small bag.

"Thanks." She said and walked further with Sting.

"Well, it's getting dark now so let's head to the mountain." He said.

Right outside of the village, there was a huge mountain: "This thing is huge. You mean we have to walk this thing up, Sting?"

"You guessed right! Well, actually we're going to run up. Because of this." He snatched Lucy's keys and stars and ran up the path leading up to the mountain.

"Hey! Wait! Geez..." She sigh and decided to run after him.

After running up half of the mountain Lucy was so tired that she had to slowly walk up the rest of the mountain. When she finally reached the top she saw a beautiful view to the village. On the mountain itself was a cave and except for that there was a huge flat place and at the side were some trees.

"Here are your keys and stars Lucy." He handed them over.

"This place is beautiful Sting. You mean I get to train at such a nice place?" She told him still eyeing the nice view.

"Duh, and no one else on Earthland knows about this except for you and me. But don't forget that you'll have to jog down every time you're hungry." He told her looking at the scenery as well.

"You mean the people don't come up here?" She asked him confused.

"Yeah, because they don't know that Weisslogia died and so they're scared of going up." He explained.

"Oh, sorry for making you talk about him. So, should we eat the sandwiches we bought earlier?" She asked him and walked towards the cave.

"It's okay, and yeah, wait up." He followed her inside.

Inside the cave were a few torches on the wall which Sting lit up with his light dragon slayer magic. In the middle was a stack of wood he had gathered before Lucy made it up. He made a fire so that they wouldn't freeze and took out the sandwiched from his bag which were on the lefts side of the fire. While doing all that Lucy placed her things on the right side of the fire and spread out her sleeping bag and later made herself to Sting who had the sandwiches. Then both of them sat down near the fire and started to eat.

"Hey, Sting can I ask you something?" Lucy asked, her face looking onto the ground.

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" He turned his head to look at her.

"Why did you even want to help me, I mean sure Sabertooth and Fairy Tail aren't enemies anymore but even then there's no reason to, no?" She was still staring onto the ground but she could feel his gaze on her.

"Umm, why I wonder? I don't know either, I guess I just felt like helping." He really didn't know why.

"But will it be okay if you just leave the guild members like that?" She started to look up, to look at him.

"Yeah yeah, it's totally fine. I mean I told you I care about comrades and so on, but most of the guild members just go back to Lotus to get a new mission and then they're off again. There are some occasions where everyone is there and then the place would be super noisy but not to often. Normally people don't even notice I'm there when they come for a new mission, 'cause I'll be in my office or something." He explained.

"You know for some reasons, I really can't wait until the next Grand Magic Games are starting. It's not just because of Natsu, but thinking about the last one I noticed that it was somehow kind of fun. Except for the Eclipse thing of course. It's also the time that you became the new master right?" She was smiling softly thinking of the last Grand Magic Games.

After Lucy's last sentence was said Sting's face turned into a sad one, one filled with regret. He still remembered clearly how Jiemma killed Lector in front of everyone, he still remembered Minerva tell him that Lector was still alive and if he won he would get him back, and then it turned out to be a total lie. He still remembered, how he was crying like a kid for a whole week after finding out that it was a lie, he remembered everything.

After seeing Sting face Lucy noticed what she had just said: "Sorry Sting! I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to make you remember all of that, it must have been really painful."

"Nah, it's okay. Hey, actually maybe that's why I wanted to help you. Because when I saw you crying all alone in Lotus, you reminded me of myself. All alone and feeling hopeless." He tried to smile at her.

After they ate finish they went to bed, both of them lost deep in thought before they finally fell asleep.

Lucy was thinking about today, from morning to evening, about her leaving Fairy Tail, patting Sting's head on the train, buying Throwing Stars, walking up the mountain, and most of all just meeting Sting. I wonder what would have happened if I didn't meet Sting...

Sting was thinking about meeting Lucy today, getting to know her better, becoming friends with her, seeing all her different kind of expressions, and hating Natsu more than he ever looked up to the Salamander. I wonder what kind of boring day I would have had if I didn't meet her...

Natsu was in Lucy's apartment lying in her bed. He was trying to sleep in his own house but couldn't and so he took a walk in Magnolia, and before he knew it he was in front of Lucy's apartment. He still remembered seeing Lucy with Sting and that was about the thing that he was worrying about most. He really had the urge to go and find her, but he knew that if he did, Lucy would only hate him more. He also didn't know if he should tell the guild about what Lucy's doing or not, afraid that they would also start to hate him, if they didn't already.

One last time Natsu looked at Lucy's beautiful handwriting and soon he was finally able to close his eyes. Lucy, where are you...

A/N: Hope you liked this as well. I'm sorry about the throwing stars thingy. I mean I have absolutly no idea how I'm supposed to describe it so I was thinking of making a deviant art account for my stories to help my readers to imagine things, not that my drawing is good in any way though.

Don't forget to chack the poll and review, follow and review if you have time and want to.