AN: Final chapter and boy do I love you guys. This has been my first properly successful story, and I'd like to thank anybody who has read, reviewed or added this story to their favourites. Oh, and just so you know, I'm looking for a Beta reader. Any volunteers can feel free to PM me! Since I don't want to jabber on and ruin the story's end, I'll just say it here.

I LOVE YOU ALL! *glomps* Thank you for making this story my best and motivating me.

*sniffles* They grow up so fast…

~Meg

~Her Fairy Tail~

Lucy stumbled home, eyes darting around, scanning and searching for any fragment of Fairy Tail, any fragment of her. She didn't care about her sanity, because she had just discovered the real world and decided that it terrified her.

No, Lucy. Calm down. Stay calm and carry on.

The girl stopped fretting and took a minute or two to compose herself, to push Fairy Tail out of her mind, to forget about it. But how could she? Lucy began to get frustrated at herself. Why couldn't she just be normal? Why did she need imaginary worlds and childhood fantasies in order to function?

But thinking of that would do her no good, because Fairy Tail was dead and so was a part of her. But she would carry on because that was her, that was life, because she was human. Only human. Not a mage, no spirits to help. Only human, and humans persevered. She would persevere no matter what.

So she sat on the bus, staring emptily outside the window. So she walked home, eyes straight ahead, mind fixed on the steady pounding of her feet.

He wasn't there when she got home- to be honest, she was glad. The last thing she needed was for Natsu to come waltzing in and make her question what reality was, to come in and blur the fine line between Fairy Tail and the world. She unlocked the door and simply dumped herself on the sofa – what time was it? – and stared at the ceiling. But it didn't work, she couldn't sleep, wouldn't sleep, because that would only bring them back. So, digging through her medicine cupboard, she retrieved a pack of sleeping pills, staring at them blearily. How many was she supposed to have again? Did it really matter? One… two… one…

One. She may have been distraught, but she wasn't suicidal.

Even so, that one pill made her eyelids- no; her entire body- feel heavy as lead. Lucy only just managed to trudge over to the bathroom, intending to wash her face, before she finally gave in to sleep. A deep, dreamless sleep.

That was good- or so she told herself.

And so the next morning Lucy woke up on the bathroom floor, hair a mess and back in pain. Which was absolutely fantastic.

With a tired groan, she unwillingly got up and forced herself into the shower. That was nice, warm and steamy, like a slice of heaven. The girl closed her eyes, feeling carefree and comforted as i-

Somebody was hammering on her door, and Lucy was pretty sure that she knew who it was.

She could have answered. She could have turned off the shower, wrapped herself in a towel and confronted her best friend. She could have just pushed it out of her mind that he was a dragonslayer in the imaginary world inside her head and just acted like he was a normal person.

But she chose cowardice, sitting down, watching the water swirl down the drain. And she listened, listened carefully until the knocking stopped and Natsu left. Lucy groaned and leaned her head back, eyes closed as she shivered despite the hot water.

It would all get better with time. No pain, no gain. Can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs. Now that she had lost her guild, she was reduced once again to infancy. And she would have to crawl through this new world before she could learn to walk, to run, to not be slave to her own imagination.

Keep calm, carry on.

She turned off the shower and went to get dressed.

It's a rule in every child's life, one guiding principle, so simple and yet so necessary and never to be left unsaid; don't play with matches.

Unfortunately, with some it is lost in translation. Others are fully aware, but they make a stand, a protest, they refuse to obey despite the fact that doing so is pointless, will never benefit them. The moment you forbid a child to do something, they will begin to plot.

Natsu's earliest memories of fire came from lighting candles at his father's funeral.

He'd always been fascinated by the stuff; it seemed to free, so lively. But in his early years, when he lived with his biological family and his greatest worries were wax crayons and whether or not he would win at Pooh sticks, Natsu simply saw fire as an interesting phenomenon, not a way of life. Sure, it was pretty, crackling and burning clear, but he wasn't obsessed, not by any stretch of one's imagination.

It was when he was living with Igneel that he first played with fire. Nothing much- he simply struck a match and watched it in awe before it burnt his fingertips, at which point he blew the flame out.

But he soon found himself attached, addicted to it as his drug. Because with such a beautiful element as fire, how could there be anything wrong in the world? It was his friend and he was its master.

Yet as he grew, Natsu began to sicken of his vice. And he started to hate it because it was a reflection of just how imperfect, how flawed, how pathetic he was. And he hated it because he needed it and craved its warmth, because he was dependant on it, he needed it. He was no longer the master, just a puppet.

But he couldn't go for long without the fire that he now despised. So he kept to it, like the 'pyromaniac' he was.

It was Happy that healed him because with Happy he had a companion, one that lived and breathed. Happy was his and nobody else's. So he needed no fire, no flames, no nothing- he had conquered his demon.

But now this. His dreams, his Lucy. Because he knew her, yet they had never met physically because he knew her from his dreams, his dreams of Fairy Tail. So didn't that just make him all the more mad? Was he just a hopeless case, insane, was he still the little boy who sat obediently next to the lake where his mother drowned? And now Lucy was different, changed. He had noticed her re-entering, yet left her alone because he needed time to breathe. Yet she had ignored him- his one confident, his nakama, his crush and the one person in the universe who operated on exactly the same wavelength as he did.

This was too much, too much to cope, because he was weak, fragile, frozen at the age of seven.

He looked through the kitchen drawers and found them.

The matches.

Twenty five minutes to four.

Time to get going if she didn't want to be late for counselling.

Lucy numbly assembled all essentials in her bag- bus pass, purse, keys, phone…

And a text from Natsu?

Part of Lucy wanted to just delete it and pretend it was never received, but she couldn't hide forever. Besides, Natsu must have gone to much effort, since 'lameass piece of junk' was exactly what it said on the tin. Lucy expected that he was also low on credit.

Sighing and deciding that she would regret such an action, Lucy opened the message.

It was perfectly worded, considering it was from Natsu. But she didn't notice that.

Do fairies have tails? Do they even exist? Who knows? It's a mystery. An adventure!

Ann Eastwood sighed, cleaning her glasses. Lucy was already five minutes late, so she could only hope that the girl would turn up at all. A recent phone call to Jude Heartfilia had led to her being assured of the his daughter's attendance, but that girl was a hopeless case- seventeen years old and still firm in her beliefs of imaginary worlds. And she simply refused to open up, to allow Ann to heal her; was still convinced that by living in her happy place, she too could be felicitous.

The blonde was protected by a wall of her own building. A steel and barbed wire reinforced bulletproof wall that was simply impenetrable.

Ten minutes late. Ann considered making herself a cup of tea before a timid knock informed her of her client's arrived. Adjusting her glasses and smoothing down her skirt to give of a professional air.

"Come in."

The door opened slowly as Lucy scuttled in, looking exceedingly uncomfortable. Her doe brown eyes still darted to and fro, but appeared to have fixed her problem with fidgeting. Which pleased the therapist because, quite frankly (and also unsympathetically), she had found it a constant source of great and unnecessary annoyance.

She gave the teen a stern look. "Your time slot began ten minutes ago, Miss Heartfilia."

The girl mumbled something of an apology.

"Do you have the character profiles I asked for?"

She shook her head, prompting the woman to sigh in exasperation. "Very well, we shall just have to forge on. But you must have them in time for next week, you hear?"

The dark mage started when the girl began to move, picking herself off the floor, smiling grimly despite the pain.

"I'm not coming next week."

Looking up from the notes she was taking, the lady fixed her client with an icy stare. "Pardon?"

On her feet, she reached for the keys at her waist.

Lucy was standing strong, hands balled into fists and eyes now fixed. "I wish to terminate our sessions, Ms Eastwood."

Ann supressed her anger and irritation. Who did this girl think she was? "I thought I had discussed the matter of your therapy with your father, had I not?"

Crouching down, the girl stuck her golden key into a tiny, pathetic little puddle of a stream.

"Yes you did."

"And?"

"He instructed that I attend my sessions until I was better."

He moved to attack her, but a lash of her whip caused him to spring away.

The woman sighed because the teen was being so… difficult. "Then sit down and stop speaking nonsense."

"No. I am no longer in need of your services. Consider it a free time slot."

"Be glad it's me and not Natsu."

"Lucinda, what-"

"It's Lucy." The girl snapped before cooling down slightly. "I prefer to be called Lucy, just Lucy." And with that the girl turned on her heel and strode out.

"Open the gate of the water bearer: Aquarius!"

When he came home that evening, Jude Heartfilia found a note blu-tacked to his fridge.

Dear Father,

I am writing to inform you that I have cancelled my sessions with Ms Eastwood. I also wish for it to be known that I am putting a stop to all contact with you for the time being. I know you were hit hard by mother's death; guess what?

So was I.

Maybe, one day, we can act like father and daughter again. But until that day comes I will be perfectly content without your presence.

~ Lucy

PS: Fuck you.

"Oi, Natsu. Natsu. NATSU!"

The boy jumped, snapping out of his daydream as his co-worker scowled.

"Your girlfriend's here."

"But I don't have-"

Another waiter butted in. "If she's not your girlfriend, you'd better hurry up before she finds herself a better guy."

"I'll cover you, just get your ass out there!"

He fished the matchbox out of the draw and stared at it briefly.

And then he tossed it into the bin before going to make himself some Pot Noodle.

The boy ran out into the rain, where Lucy was waiting – she forgot her umbrella. Typical.

Yet despite the fact that her wet blonde locks were now sodden, her face lit up when she saw him, even dashing over to meet him.

"You… you know Fairy Tail, don't you?"

He grinned, glad to have the old Lucy back. "Yup. And I'm a kickass dragonslayer."

She frowns. "But why? Why the same dreams? Why-"

"Who cares? You don't have to know everything."

She giggles at his answer because it is just so goddamn Natsu. "You realise that this makes us nutters, don't you?"

"Mad. Barmy. Insane. Off our rockers. Batshit crazy."

A smile graced her lips. "And?"

"I don't give a flying fuck."

"Neither do I."

And then he kissed her, because that's just how they were. They had their first kiss outside a small café out in the rainy street, they were mad and standing out in the cold and wet probably wasn't good for their health.

Did they care? No, because their Fairy Tail had just begun.

Our Ending, Their Beginning