(Natsu's Point of View walking home that evening approximately 1130 at night)
I can't believe after all this time I'm finally getting the chance to have her back in my life on a regular basis. I was always avoiding her outside of the guild after we changed teams. Its not that I never thought about going and hanging out with her, but she just was always gone it seemed. When the Master promoted her in the S-Class exams I was shocked it wasn't me. Thinking back though I hadn't been focused or trained hard enough. I was always distracted by something. Yea we took harder missions as a team, but I never properly focused on actually refining myself like she had gone and done. It was always complete this mission. Fight with Gray. It was a simple life, but at the same time the master was right. Our team went into a standstill. We all couldn't improve any further because of all the outside distractions. Lisanna was a huge distraction for me these past few years and everyone could see that. The guilt that ate away at us. Gray dating Juvia… Erza's constant visits to Jellal…It's understandable how Lucy surpassed us now. She lived and breathed the guild and training. She didn't have the distractions like we did. She did exactly what we recommended.
Before I knew it I was standing in front of a very familiar apartment I hadn't set foot in for a very long time. I know she isn't back yet I would be able to sense her, but I don't want to intrude either. Happy said small steps. For now I'll look through her window only for a moment I decided. Hopping up on the window seal I look in. However it surprised me. Nothing has changed at all. She has a picture frame of all of us in the old Team Natsu sitting on her desk with a photo album next to it. Letting my curiosity get the better of me though I slip the window open and am pleasantly surprised with the subtle smell of strawberry scent and a pair of warm dark chocolate brown eyes staring at me from the living room. I can't believe I didn't sense her magical presence. She clearly expected both me and Happy and it appears that she has just woken to start her day. That's weird. I chuckle to myself. Same old weirdo.
"I got back a while ago from my mission, but I just woke up.. I'm truly sorry if I scared Happy on my way there though. I really didn't mean to Natsu." Lucy says quietly still sitting on the couch in the living room.
Happy flies in through the window, he must of knew I would end up here tonight I thought to myself. I watch as he slowly starts to approach Lucy giving a subtle glare to me.
"It's ok Lucy I told you I'm not going anywhere. How did the mission go? I'm surprised you got back so quickly." Happy says softly standing in front of her watching her carefully. I can see that she's focusing on her behavior. She's trying really hard. I watch as she walks over to her desk and pulls out a small pouch and walks back over to Happy.
"It was really quick Happy. I don't choose missions that are to flashy. Causes to much unnecessary attention from people. I do enough to pay for rent and any essentials I may need to cover over the month. I forgot here's part of your reaward from the mission too. If you like you can sleep here tonight. I recommend the couch, but if you want to sleep on the bed just let me know ok Happy?" She smiles softly to Happy and hands him the pouch.
"It's ok Lucy you can keep it. I mean I wasn't there so I couldn't possibly accept this." Happy tries to return her the pouch only to receive a gentle smile and a shake of the head.
"Happy please take it. It's the least I can do after how I treated you and Carson." Lucy tells him. Happy nods at her accepting her reasoning hesitantly and then turns with her to look at me.
Wait she's looking at me now. What do I say? That's right think Natsu.
"Um Lucy I'm sorry for intruding. Its been a long time since I've been here and I noticed your photo album when I was outside your window…. Could we look at it together?" I ask with a hopeful expression on my face while scratching the back of my head lightly. I know I'm rambling. How embarrassing. Why am I so nervous around her? She's my best friend. Sigh I'm such an idiot.
Lucy smiles and starts walking over to the photo album and picks it up. "Ok Natsu, but forgive me for this. We have to go back to my training ground so I can look at it as well. Is that ok Happy? This could be our little training session together like we wanted to start doing." Lucy says happily. I can see the spark of life, but suddenly there's also a spark of magic coming from her again. This pulse hurt a little, but I know it wasn't intentional. Happy appears unaffected by it though. That's odd.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to.." I cut her off quickly, "It's ok Lucy. Look see no harm done." I smile quickly. Her face falling a little while looking down at Happy who just floated over to her arms. She holds him softly and pets his head. "Ok guys. I'm sorry in advance if I unintentionally hurt you. I promise it won't be on purpose." With that I'm engulfed in a soft light and we're teleported to her training area.
I look around the area a bit shocked and see the boulder that was smashed earlier that day from Lucy. I didn't originally believe Happy when he said this, and I guess the look on my face didn't surprise Happy. He simply nodded at me with his tongue out and an expression of I told you so. I just shake my head and smile back at him.
I spot Lucy a little ways away and watch as Lucy sets the book down. I try to approach her only to get held back by an arm. I look over and see Loki is standing there shaking his head back and forth simply saying one word, "Watch."
I continue to watch Lucy as she sits like Happy described and closed her eyes. She drains her magic quickly releasing it into the ground around her in a soft glow while trying to not keep us waiting and only keeping enough to call out her necessary spirits. How I can tell…. I don't know however it feels as though she could easily reattain the recently drained magic. It's clear she needed to do this so her emotions didn't intentionally hurt anyone but I can't help but be in awe of her control. I reminds me of what Guildarts had said about magic during the S class exam the first time I was selected to go. How he talked about walking the path of magic and how far we are all willing to go. Lucy has clearly continued walking that path from this simple display. However I'm distracted again by the soft glow she let off and the energy radiating off of her. I can't help but love everything about her. How could I not see how much I loved her before is beyond me. Slowly after about 10 minutes she opens her eyes to have a small tear run down her cheek. Seeing that she has finished I watch as Loki walks forward and offers her a bottle of water which she happily accepts and then he decides to go to the other side of the waterfall nearby to observe from afar. Far enough away for their own privacy, but close enough if she needs him. I can't thank him enough for allowing me to be here with his master.
I slowly walk forward to see the mixture of emotions and panic running across her face that she's trying to keep in check. She was right in saying she hasn't been around people outside of the guild. She really didn't know how to react around people anymore.
"That was great Lucy." Happy says quickly and flies over to land on her shoulder.
"Thanks Happy. Its necessary for me to drain some of it if I'm going to try and be around people more often, and since we're going to go through my most precious possession it's especially important." She smiles brightly.
"Why is this your most precious possession Lucy." I ask interrupting Happy from asking the question first.
"Because it's my family and all of the happiest moment's I've ever shared with any of them." She says brightly.
I can't help but feel my heart squeeze when I hear that. I finally approach her and sit next to her with the album in my hands that I picked up on my way over. Looking down at it is a picture of Fairy Tail on the front cover. I hand it to her so that she can lead the way. I smile and say, "Thank you Lucy for letting me come with you. I'm really excited."
She smiles at me knowingly and opens to the first page of the old Team Natsu. I look shocked seeing this is the first picture she places in here. Looking at her I see the longing look on her face. I quietly take her hand in mine and squeeze it a little for comfort. She smiles softly at me and turns to the next picture of her and all of her spirits in this clearing called out at the same time. You can slightly see a projection of the spirit king behind all of them smiling broadly as well. I can't believe I'm seeing this. This is how powerful she is? I stare at her in awe. Wow. She turns to the next page and I see multiple pictures after this. Her and Levy discussing novels. Her in a bunny suit next to Gajeel out of fun on the stage. Mira and her having a friendly chat about something in the morning with a cup of tea. Slowly she gets through the whole binder, but as we get further through the binder, I notice that pictures are starting to change to not include her any further. They are of all of her family without her. If she's in the picture she looks as though she's shying away from the camera. It's as though she is avoiding the attention of others. As if reading my mind she says, "I don't like unnecessary attention anymore Natsu. All I want to see is everyone's happiness. It settles me down seeing it. That's why all the latest pictures are of everyone else." Quietly she pulls the album from my hands and calls out Plue who hugs her quickly then takes the album with him back to the spirit world for safe keeping.
I turn and look at her now smiling broadly, "Ok Luce. I understand." Happy nods as well, but continues by saying, "You're still amazing though. Those pictures were priceless! I can't believe you got one of Gray drunk doing the Plu dance in his boxers on a table."
She starts to giggle but the sudden burst that followed scared her. She pulled back again from us and apologized again. "I'm sorry. I…" Happy simply settles into her arms further and snuggles a quick hug into her. She starts to cry a little and I can see that Loki is starting to make his way over. Before he gets here though I turn towards her and Happy and ask one last question since I know she's going to probably do some more training before we leave. "Why are you sorry Lucy? You see that we are both fine. So smile ok?" I see her try to smile, but quickly realizes something is going to happen so she immediately moves Happy to me and jumps back in a fighting stance.
"Lets Begin Lucy." I hear from Loki. How did he project his voice like that across the field. Is there a speaker somewhere?
"Natsu and Happy do you want to stay and possibly get hurt while watching, or do you need me to teleport you back?" Lucy says in a confident, firm all business tone.
This was the opportunity I wanted and both Happy and I immediately agreed to stay with her. Accident or not I wasn't going to go anywhere. We both shake our head no observing the surroundings.
"Ok but I'm warning you. This is my personal time to let loose so these are my only rules. Don't distract me, Don't interfere and Do Not come near me until I give the ok." She states quietly with an underlying warning.
"We understand Lucy Where do you recommend we go?" Happy asks quickly seeing that her training has already started and she's moving around the field fast all while observing her surroundings. Didn't she have very little magic left? She only maintained enough for her spirits I thought? I can't believe what I'm seeing. Working with her whip it smoothly runs across the ground waiting for the next move. Her muscles are tight, her eyes sharp. She's like a hunter waiting for her prey. It's breathtaking seeing her like this.
Soon there are Four spirits surrounding her to start the battle at far ends of each side of the field. I had to admit this was the perfect training area. It had every element available and plenty of space. I could see her magic increasing by the second. She was reaching out and absorbing the natural magic around her. Soon there was that pulse pushing away the spirits again. Not strong enough to hurt them, just to make them keep their distance. It was like it all happened in a breath of a second though. The shield disappeared and everyone started moving. Capricorn started with hand to hand combat getting pushed back in time for her to see the onslaught of arrows and sand buster coming from Sagittarius, Taurus, and Scorpio. She quickly held up a new weapon she somehow summoned and wrapped her shield tightly around her body. She quickly swiped the short sword through the sand buster to deflect the arrows that were oncoming only to turn around and block Loki's punch with her hand. She quickly flipped him and held up her whip she had switched back to snagging Capricorn and throwing him with a flick of her wrist towards the waterfall. It was like a never ending onslaught of battle towards the blond and all I could do is continue to move while observing and dodging the aftershocks of her magic in awe and of how she was capable of holding all her spirits back. Every ten minutes that went by it seemed an additional new spirit would come out to join the others or they would swap out. Aquarius eventually came out and flooded the field creating a swamp like environment type of battle field. Testing her endurance with all the mud and water surrounding her they kept pushing her to the limit.
Happy and I were constantly on the move with the shift of the battle. She really wasn't kidding when she said training with or near her was going to be dangerous. Stray attacks coming from every direction either from her or from her spirits. Random trees breaking. Rocks flying. After shocks from her attacks lingering in areas where they weren't quick enough to move from realizing they weren't paying attention. Regardless though we weren't going anywhere. This was exhilarating to watch and experience as well. Her spirits have taught her so much these past few years. Again, I can only admire her even more.
The sun slowly started to rise signaling the spirits to save the battle training for another time. She looked a little sad that it was ending so soon, but either way they were impressed. Each spirit stopped in front of her and gave her more tactical advice here and there and where and how to improve. She nodded to each and thanked them all for their assistance while her training area was slowly cleared away by each spirit and fixed to its former glory. She walked over to us now and said, "I apologize for taking so long again. This is kind of our routine here in the clearing. Not very often do I get a full on battle with them all, but they try to do it and surprise me once a month." She says a bit hesitantly like she's trying to justify herself to them. You can see it makes her happy though. "Happy remember how I said I train every night and morning… well this is kind of what I meant. Every evening I come here and don't go home till early dawn to freshen up and return to the guild. My sleep schedule is usually in the afternoons hence why I leave the guild pretty early or take missions in the mornings. I don't expect you to keep up immediately or attend every time, but I know you already talked to master and want to come to as much as you can. Don't push yourself to much though. It takes a while to adjust. Ok?" She smiles with that cute tilt of her head. When she starts to see the cuts though on both of us her eyes widen as she starts to tremble with watery eyes. "I.. I…" We look down to see what she's looking at and are shocked too. I quickly reply though, "No it's ok Lucy. It's nothing really." I quickly pull her into a hug and realize she has her shield in place still molded around her body closely. "it's ok. Shhhh. We're fine. I promise. You were amazing Lucy. Shhhh." I say softly to her while stroking her back trying to comfort her. Slowly her shield melts away for a bit from his encouraging words.
"We aren't disappointed in you Lucy. You warned us in advance. You took all the precautions. It'll be ok." Happy tries to encourage her to look up at us.
Slowly she lifts her face to them and steps back out of my embrace. She slowly puts her shield back around her body. "Ok guys. I understand. I bet you're tired though not getting to go to bed all night." She says trying to smile at them but having it come out a little forced. "You can sleep at my place if you would like and or I could cook you breakfast. And before you ask Natsu no not on my bed. You'll be taking a bath before you get near that thing." She giggles a little again and the unfamiliar burst comes again causing her to stop and stare down.
Happy and I both laugh a little to lighten the mood. "Don't worry Lucy. A nap really does sound great though. I'm pretty tired." It's all I could say because I knew what she was still thinking right then. That she couldn't stop hurting everyone or disappointing us. That she should just stop talking anymore to people outside the guild. She would think she lost focus to easily, or berate herself for not taking better care of the people around her. However she looks up and smiles and with that soft light engulfing the three of us I find that we're all standing in her living room again.
As early in the morning as it is she clearly hasn't so much as yawned since I've seen her. Then again she had just woken up before we arrived. I guess starting your day at midnight and going to bed at six in the afternoon gets you like this and she's been doing this for a long time. With it being close to 830 now and the sun just rising I feel a wave of exhaustion run over me. I take her up on her advice and take a shower like she offered, then climbed into what I like to describe as a little bit of heaven with Happy. I don't remember or know how I got bandaged up between the shower and bed, but to be honest I didn't care. I was just finally at peace with how my life was finally coming together.