A/N: So I wrote some more things. Tada! I'm running out of creativity, so these titles are getting harder to come up with each time haha. Why do I do this to myself?

Thanks for all the kindness as usual :)

"Lu."

"Mm?"

"Lu, I invited you over for a reason."

I closed the book I was reading. "This is really good," I said. "I'm only on the third page and I'm already intrigued."

Levy smiled. "I know. That's why I said you should read it. But I didn't mean to read it now," she said.

"Okay, okay. What's up?" I was lying on my stomach on her bed, and I rolled over to sit up, dangling my feet over the edge.

"I thought you should know, since you're one of my best friends and all..."

"Did something happen?"

"Uh. With Gajeel, I..." She trailed off and blushed.

"You and Gajeel...?" I prompted. I started to smile. I had a feeling where this was going.

"Well, I finally talked to him, and I don't know if it's something you said to him, but he didn't avoid the subject this time. And we're, uhh...we're dating now. For real."

I squealed, clapping my hands. My heart felt full. "That's awesome, Levy! Congratulations!"

She blushed dark red. "Thanks. It's kind of on the DL, though. Like, it's not a secret, but we're not exactly going to go around telling people, y'know?"

"Sort of like Juvia and Gray?" I said.

Levy laughed. "Except Juvia's so obvious. I'm pretty sure everyone knew they got together even without her saying anything."

"I know they're quiet about it because Gray's shy about romance, but what's your reason?"

Levy curled a lock of hair around her finger. "I guess Gajeel's pretty shy about these things, too. You know how he is. It's not something he asked of me so much as just something I want to do for his sake. And neither of us are the type who like getting attention. So I'm just telling our friends, and other than that, people will have to find out over time."

"Basically, I shouldn't go bragging to everyone that one of my best friends finally hooked up with her guy, right?"

"Lucy!" The red spread to her ears as I laughed. "We're not like that," she mumbled.

"Yet," I added, making her blush deepen.

"Oh, shush. Say what you want about 'hooking up' but it's not like you and Natsu haven't used going to the bathroom as an excuse to go make out in the stairwell during class."

Now it was my turn to blush. "How'd you know about that?" I demanded. "That only happened twice, so how...?"

"Gajeel saw it," Levy said, smirking. "You're lucky it wasn't Gray or Loke, or everyone would know by now."

I covered my cheeks with my hands in an effort to cool them down. "Wow. This is embarrassing."

"Little Miss Class President making out in the stairwell with her boyfriend," Levy sang.

"Don't you dare tell a soul," I said. "And I swear it was only twice..."

"You're keeping count?"

My face burned. "Fine. Whatever. You win this time, Levy McGarden."

"I always win," she bragged.

"So, who else have you told about Gajeel?"

"Just you and Erza so far. Jet was busy, and I want to tell him and Droy at the same time, so I'm telling them when we hang out tomorrow. I was going to call Juvia later. I'm still not sure how I'm going to tell my parents..."

"Yeah, that'll be awkward."

"Tell me about it," Levy sighed. "The whole business situation is weird. Well, it doesn't affect Gajeel and my relationship directly, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"You just have to never break up or it'll be awkward between the parents."

Levy laughed. "I hope we won't any time soon. We've been half-dating for long enough now that it's safe to say our relationship is stable. The only difference is that now I've got some commitment out of him."

"That's true. It's been how long now? A year?"

"Ish. Not quite. Our first date was...when? November? December?"

"You can't even remember?" I said, laughing.

"I'm still kind of out of it," Levy confessed. She smiled, putting her hands to her cheeks with a dreamy expression. "I'm so happy it feels like a dream."

I tackled-hugged her and we both tumbled to the floor laughing. "You're too cute," I said, squeezing my arms around her shoulders.

"You always say that."

"And I mean it every time."

She returned the hug, wrapping her short arms around my back. "Thanks, Lu. I owe you one."

"I didn't even do anything."

"Still. Thanks."

The trial came all too quickly. Natsu declined to testify, wanting to watch the entire proceedings in court, so I was their witness for what happened in the funeral home. I wasn't sure I was ready to face Zeref, but I did want to testify against him, so I took that chance.

They had me wait outside in the hallway so whatever else was said in court wouldn't influence my testimony. I wasn't sure what the big deal was, since all I had to do was confirm that Zeref was the one who gave Natsu those cards, and that had already been confirmed by police.

I was called to the witness stand. Looking out at the crowd of people sitting in the courtroom, I found Natsu in one of the front rows, Mr. Makarov and Uncle Atlas on either side. Lisanna and Chelia were with Wendy. Even Sting and Rogue were in the row behind them with their families; so Loke's claim that they were involved in this were true.

Once I was seated at the witness stand, I swore to tell the truth, and then the questions started about the day I first saw Zeref after Igneel's funeral.

"Are you sure it was this man you saw in the funeral home that day?"

"Yes," I said definitively. I looked over at Zeref, whose looked like he was zoning out. "Yes, for sure that's him."

"How can you be so certain? You told the police that your memory of his face was very vague."

"It was, but both Natsu and I picked this guy out of a lineup of faces after someone reported him based on the sketches. My memory may have been vague on details, but I know what I saw."

"And you say you saw him give the cards to Mr. Dragneel?"

"Yes. The note was mixed in with the pile. It wasn't until Natsu had started looking through the cards that he noticed the note, and by then he was gone."

"Did you see what the note said?"

My eyes darted upward to think. "Um, it was something along the lines of, 'Wendy's mom is next,' and was signed with...uhh...Acknowledge Bra?"

"It was something similar, yes."

"Acne Lodge?"

"Miss Heartfilia."

"It's a hard name to say."

"I am aware."

"I remember when they told us his real name, I wondered why he didn't just use that one. Both are rare, but Zane Fluff is so much easier to say than Acro Log Fee."

"Miss Heartfilia."

"Wait, sorry. Z Referee."

"Miss Heartfilia, this is a serious case. If you cannot answer the questions seriously, you may be dismissed from the witness stand."

"Sorry."

Not that they were going to ask me any more questions anyway. Might as well get my digs in while I could, no matter if I was making the court people's lives more difficult. I couldn't care less that this point. Zeref had already taken so much from Natsu, and so much from me too, all the fear and pain he caused. The least I could do was use my one moment of power over him to mock him in some way.

And honestly, his names were hard to say. What in the world was "Acnologia" supposed to be, anyway?

I held my head high under the judge's glare. Zeref at least seemed to have stopped zoning out, and was regarding me with an incredulous expression. I stared him down for a moment. I wouldn't let him scare me anymore.

Even though I told myself that, my heart was pounding. If I hadn't made those jokes, I probably would've just leapt over there to punch him in the face. I had no clue how Natsu managed to be so calm when it was his turn, but somehow he kept his cool despite seeing his father's killer right in front of him. Meanwhile I wasn't even directly affected, and I was making jokes to keep myself from going into a rage. Ironic, really.

They asked me a few more questions, the defense declined to question me, and that was that. Zeref wasn't watching me anymore, so I turned and left the witness stand to go wait back out in the hallway. The security guard by the door gave me a smirk as I passed through. At least someone had appreciated my jokes about Zeref's name. It was hard to come up with all those on the spot.

"Hey!"

Behind me, I heard shouts from the door I'd just exited, and I turned around to see what was happening. The door hadn't closed just yet, and the security guard was gone, so I stopped it from closing with my foot and opened it up to peek inside the courtroom.

Shouting everywhere. Security guards ran into the center of the courtroom where Zeref had somehow gotten free of his restraints. How had he managed to get so far in the few seconds my back was turned? He was marching with purpose across the courtroom, taking down the startled lawyers in his path. My heart stopped in my chest as I realized where he was going. His aim was obvious: Natsu.

A/N: Let's be real, Zeref would never let himself be put away quietly, no matter how calm and collected he may seem. He won't be able to accomplish much surrounded by police in the middle of a courtroom, but he sure as heck is gonna try. Poor thing. Haha.

Thanks for reading!